Shredded souls
by The Awesome Novice Writer
Summary: We all make mistakes, we all do something that we regret, and every time we do something bad, a piece of our soul goes away. How much of your soul are you willing to chip away in order to survive? To protect? To get revenge? Or just have fun? Closed SYOT.
1. District 7

**District Seven**

**Timber "Saw" Carther's POV**

I hate being the second grown up kid in this family. Well, mentally anyway.

I watched as my two younger brothers and two younger sisters were holding hands and spinning around in a circle while screaming happily with large smiles on their faces.

"No school! No school! No school for today!" It was alright for them to be acting like excited little children, after all, they were ten, eleven, and twelve years old. Despite that it was reaping day and that the tenth quarter quell was among us, my twelve year old brother, Jack, wasn't scared at all. Why should he be? He's only entered his name once, no tesserae or anything. The rest were too young for the reapings.

Looking at the happy circle of kids was something that shouldn't be there though. My seventeen year old brother, Chip, was among them. He was the second oldest of my siblings, second only to my older sister, Oksana, and he was acting like a ten year old. I knew it wasn't his fault due to his brain damage, but it still made me mad that he couldn't act his age. He was a year older then me, and yet, I was more mentally grown up them him.

"Act your age Chip!" I shouted angrily at my immature brother as I shoved my chair back hard enough for it to crash to the floor.

As soon as the chair hit the floor, my siblings looked up to me in surprise, their singing suddenly came to a halt. Their faces full of surprise and confusion. "I swear goddamn it, you were put on this earth to annoy the hell out of me you retard!"

The room went silent for a few seconds before Chip started to cry.

That really got to me. Chip, despite being six feet tall with big strong arms and shoulders, was such a cry baby. "Shut up Chip!" I shouted angrily at him, just wanting him to stop crying. "Just shut up!"

"What the hell's going on this time!" I heard the voice of my older sister shout as she entered the kitchen, if you could even call the piece of shit room we built a kitchen. Small, rotting, and a poor excuse for a room kitchen. "Did you make your brother cry again?"

Not even turning towards her, I shouted.

"No!"

"I heard you calling him a retard!"

"Well that's what he is!"

"Even so, you don't call your brother a retard. It's not his fault that the saw blade YOU were carrying cut through HIS brain like a twig."

I felt both angry and sad at her comment because she was right about how it was my fault that I had accidently made a saw go part way through his head all those years ago.

I was carrying a two handed saw and I accidently made it fall onto Chip's head, and when I tried to pull it away from him, it only dug into his skull.

I didn't want to hit anyone, but I was afraid that I was going to, so I grabbed the chair I had knocked over and threw it against the wall. The homemade chair shattered against the wall and the pieces rained onto the dirt floor.

I picked up several other items and threw them against the wall because of my rage. Some of them broke, others didn't, but I didn't care, all I wanted to do was throw things.

A few moments passed before I didn't feel like throwing things anymore. "When you get back from the reapings," My older sister told me, not even fazed by my anger. "We're finally going to put you in one of those help groups, despite how crappy those things are, hopefully you'll learn at least one thing about controlling your anger."

I sighed in frustration. Not at Oksana or Chip, but at myself. I knew I had an anger problem, it was the reason I got kicked out of school and was working as a food and drink carrier for the lumberjacks. No lumberjack or factory operator would hire me for a job that involved axes and machines, for obvious reasons.

"Good." I admitted as I thought of all the trouble my anger had created for everyone, especially Oksana, Chip, and my younger siblings after mom and dad died feeding all of us.

"Now let's all get to the reapings before the peacekeepers bust down our doors." Oksana suggested before we all headed out of the makeshift house and out to the town center.

**Willow Jacksmith's POV**

My mind wondered if I should worry about getting reaped. Sure I hadn't put my names in too many times, my name was only in there six times, but my friend Haley, kept on reminding me that there was still a chance that I could get picked. That, plus the quarter quell had never been announced, so the twist of the game was still a mystery to us all.

What was this year's twist? What nightmare would they put those in the arena? Would I be put into this year's arena? The thought scared me as Haley kept on going through what sadistic twists that the Capital might of thought of for this quarter quell.

I covered my ears until we reached the town square, and even then, I couldn't escape my friend, because she was the same age as me, and I was standing next to her.

"What if we only have twenty four hours to kill each other?" Haley asked with panic in her voice. "What if we have ten times the tributes? What if-"

"Haley," I said, still covering my ears and was beginning to panic myself. "Please stop. Your scaring me." I was scared before this day even began, Haley was only adding fuel to the fire. And her own fears as well.

"Oh," She said with shame as she cast her eyes down. "Sorry."

"It's fine." I told her. "Just, don't talk for the rest of the reapings."

"Ok." She said quietly.

I wasn't saying that to hurt her feelings, and I wasn't just thinking about myself for this, I was thinking of the both of us.

We both got scared easily, in fact, we became friends when we got lost in the forest. We were both wondered off into the forest, got lost, found each other, and held on to each other to keep each other safe and make ourselves feel safe in the progress. It wasn't until the next morning that the lumberjacks found us huddling together, our arms wrapped around each other as we continued to shiver in fright. We didn't sleep that entire night, and we thought that the lumberjacks were monsters, so we ran away from them as soon as we saw them.

We eventually found out that they weren't monsters, but not until nearly fifteen minutes of running away later.

It was something we laughed at now, and it was my most prized memory. I was always afraid to talk to the other kids, but our bond was forged without words.

"Hello District Seven!" A high pitched female voice shouted into the microphone, scaring me and making me jump a little. "Welcome to the tenth quarter quell. Now, you all may be wondering why you're inside those cages right now,"

Cages? We didn't walk into any cages.

I looked around to see if she was joking. She wasn't. Us seventeen year old girls were inside a black steel cage that was barley big enough for us to fit in.

I must of not noticed it due to how scared I was before. "Due to the drawing of the card, and the high spike in the Panem population, we'll be operating things a little differently this year. This year, we'll be drawing pieces of paper consisting of an age group until we get a volunteer."

That news struck me hard. A volunteer? She'd pick an age group, then choose someone from that age group to volunteer? I hoped that she didn't draw the number seventeen for the girls, I was in it. And who knows how long it'll take for someone to volunteer. "Those outside that age group are allowed to volunteer, those of the selected age group aren't allowed to."

Suddenly, I heard the sounds of peacekeeper guns getting ready to fire. I scared me. Why were they getting their guns ready?

"Willow." Haley whispered sacredly as she grabbed my left arm in fright. I grabbed onto her as well, holding her for mental support.

What was going on?

"For the girls, the first age group is...Sixteen."

Suddenly, I heard the sound of cracking thunder behind me.

I turned towards the sound to see that the peacekeepers were firing their guns into the sixteen year old girl section.

I closed my eyes and tried to block out the screams of the girls getting slaughtered in the cage behind us and the spectators of the killing.

I held on to Haley as the killing continued, until it stopped as suddenly as it started.

I didn't look back to see if there were any surviving sixteen year old girls. If there were any survivors, I couldn't imagine the pain they'd be feeling right now. "Any volunteers?" Our escort asked. Her only response was the screams and cries of sorrow and shock. "No? Okay. Our next age group is...Twelve."

Another round of thunder occurred, and I knew who was getting killed this time, girls who were twelve years old, girls that should of been safe from the reapings. But all of them were getting killed by the peacekeepers around their cage.

I held on to Haley even harder as I buried my head into her shoulder, as she did the same thing with my shoulder.

Those girls. Those innocent, little girls who were supposed to be safe, were now all dead. And our age group could come up. Or worse, more kids could die in senseless killing if someone didn't do anything. "Now, is there someone who will volunteer for the game," Our escort said, free of emotion. "Or will we have to draw another card?"

No. No more killing. No more of this. Someone! Volunteer! Someone stop this senseless slaughter!

"I volunteer!" I heard and felt myself shouting.

Even though I couldn't see them, I could feel the heads of the entire district turn towards me. And even though I wanted to do nothing more then to curl up in a ball, cry my eyes out, and hold onto my dear friend, I knew that more were going to die if I didn't do something other then volunteer.

"Willow." Haley whispered in shock, disbelief, and sadness.

"I have to Haley." I sadly told her as I released my arms from her and let the rough hands the grabbed and drag me away from my friend. "It's me, or hundreds of other kids."

Haley only dropped her head, and cried. I knew she understood, but that didn't mean that she liked it. Hell, I didn't like it myself, but it had to be done.

One life, or hundreds. My life, or the lives of other brothers, sisters, and friends that would be lost?

"What's your name dear?" My escort asked me when I got on stage.

"Willow." I told her quietly, but loud enough for her to hear me. "Willow Jacksmith."

"Let's give a round of applause for our brave contestant, Willow Jacksmith!" Our escort shouted happily. Her only response from the audience was crying.

Our escort then walked over to the boy's reaping bowl, which only contained seven slips of paper, and picked one of them out of the bowl. "Seventeen." She announced.

She didn't even get to the half way point of seventeen when a voice cried out from the crowd, before more screaming erupted, before the peacekeepers fired into the cage holding the unlucky seventeen year old boys.

**Timber "Saw" Carther's POV**

"NOOOOOOOO!" I shouted as our escort said seventeen. Chip was in the seventeen year old cage, and he was about to be killed!

No, he was getting killed, right in front of my eyes. I couldn't see him directly, but I knew that he was getting killed in front of me. Somewhere in that cage, he was getting killed by a bullet or two or five.

Chip was an immature, stupid, seventeen year old who got on my nerves, but it wasn't his fault, I made him like that. He used to be the smart one in the family, until I dropped that saw on his head four years ago.

I was being stupid with the saw, holding it above my head like an ax about to be swung. Chip nearly died because of that, and now he was dead, and the last thing I said to him was that he was retarded and to shut up. He'd never hear me apologize or give him a good comment ever again. The thoughts going through his head before he died must of been horrible.

Chip may of been stupid, annoying, and a cry baby, but he was still my older brother who I played with when we were younger.

That Capital lady. That fucking Capital lady! The way she calmly said our ages and reacted to the sound of gunfire and death, it was like our lives meant nothing to her. I saw the peacekeepers, I saw that in their eyes, they didn't really want to shot us, but they had to, it was their job and their lives were on the line as well. That fucking bitch up on that stage with that annoyingly high voice didn't give half a fuck about our lives. We were sub-human to her. She was murdering more then fifty kids, and didn't even bat an eye. The anger inside me boiled as I thought of those lives she destroying. The life she was destroying for Chip. For Oksana. For me. For the rest of my siblings.

After the sound of gunfire finished, the escort emotionlessly asked for volunteers.

The anger inside me exploded as she asked for volunteers so calmly. What just happened in front of her was like a walk through the forest. It meant little to her, if anything.

"I volunteer!" I shouted angrily as I ran to the cage door and grabbed it before shaking it with my hands. "I volunteer I volunteer I volunteer!"

A peacekeeper unlocked the door before I ran out of the cage, past the peacekeepers, and up the stage.

"Well, look who's eager to get into the-" The district's escort started, but didn't finish, as I picked up the microphone stand in front of her and swung it as hard as I could at her head.

I heard a thick crackle of static as the metal objects hit her across the face before she fell onto the stage. Blood sprayed out of the escort's mouth as he spun in a half circle and fell to the ground without so much as a grunt. I heard the voice of my district partner scream out in fright as I the Capital body hit the steel below our feet.

My district partner had thick, shiny brown hair that was tied in a loose pony tail, her green eyes wide with shock, and she wore a clean yellow dress. She was tiny framed, but she was a little fat in arenas of her body. She was probably a rich girl who never saw violence committed in front of her.

"You bitch!" I shouted as I slammed the microphone stand on the Capital escort again. "You fucking bitch!" Slam. "Do." Slam. "You." Slam. "Know." Slam. "What." Slam. "You've." Slam. "Done!" Slam.

I was about to hit her again, but then I felt thick arms wrap around my throat, cutting off my air supply. I fought back, but darkness washed over me, and the world turned black."

**Willow Jacksmith's POV**

The boy, the infamous Timber "Saw" Carther, got choked out by a peacekeeper before his body went limp.

Timber was infamous for both her anger, and his deadly accidents that involved saws. He was a walking disaster with saws for some reason. Give him a saw and something bad'll happen. That's what I've heard from the kids at school. I've never seen him in person, but with all the talk about him, I feel as if I do know him.

Black haired with dark brown skin, a green and black flannel shirt that was dirty and torn over a dirty white shirt with equally torn up black pants. It showed that he was from the poor side of the district. The very poor side. Either that, or he choose not to wear his best wears for the reapings.

Either way, he was scary. He had beaten the escort with little remorse. A violent boy with an anger problem, I didn't like the way things were heading for me.

With our escort down, we were lead to the justice building for our last goodbyes by the head peacekeeper.

For me, I knew it was my last goodbye. I'd never survive the arena.

I sat down, and cherished the time I had left with the people who meant something in my life.

**A/N: Ok, well, that's the D7 reaping with my own characters, just to show you how the reapings are going down.**

**Basically, the quarter quell was kept a secret from the districts in order to bring surprise to them when the reapings came. And instead of name getting drawn, an age group is drawn before those of that age get murdered. The escort then asks for volunteers, and if nobody volunteers, another age group gets massacred, until someone finally volunteers.**

**Fiddlegirl, if you've noticed a striking resemblance between my reapings and your reapings, it's because I got the idea from you. Hope you don't mind.**

**Anyway, this is a SYOT and I'll be accepting tributes by PM only. Those who submit by reviews will be ignored, no matter how good they are.**

**And just so you all know, this SYOT is an experiment. It's mostly for me to practice writing reapings, interviews, and several small things that I want to try out.**

**So if you want a tribute to be part of this experiment, PM me, the form is on my profile.**


	2. District 6

**District Six**

**Adrienne Quintus's POV**

"Hey Adrienne!" I heard a boy to my right shout towards me. "I'll give you three coins if you suck my dick! God knows you need it you fucking whore!"

I felt my anger explode as he spoke those words. I grinded my teeth in anger while turning around to face whoever had shouted at me.

I turned around to see some of my classmates, and his friends of both genders laughing.

They always did that, they called me a fucking whore because of my whore mother. They thought that because of her, that I was going to follow in her footsteps. I tried to show everyone that I wasn't like that, but nothing I do could make them think differently. That's all they thought of me, because my mother was a whore, I was going to be one as well. And they seemed to like nothing more then to pick on people.

I hated them for that. I hated them for making fun of me, for making my life harder then it already was, I just hated them!

"How about I cut it off instead!" I shouted angrily to the leader as I charged towards him.

I gave them no warnings. Normally I'd give them one warning to stop, or maybe two if I was in a good mood, but not today. My mother was still mad about the client she had last night, and she took it out on me by throwing things at me. Nothing much, since we don't really have too many objects in our house, but it still pissed me off that she'd take her anger out on me and throw what little possessions we had since she spends most of her earnings on drugs and booze instead of trying to improve our lifestyle.

The kids who were laughing at me quickly fell silent before they started to run away from me. They were bullies, nothing more, they'd talk the talk but never walk the walk when things went down.

There was six of them, four boys and two girls, they outnumbered me, but they were still too cowardly to face me.

I chased them down the street, slowly gaining on them until they turned into an alleyway between two middle class homes. I turned into the alleyway after them, only to see a flash of bright colours appear in front of me as pain washed over my face before I felt the cold, wet, hard ground that was more like thin mud hit the back of my body.

A sneak attack! Shit!

"Get her!" The boy I had been after shouted, before I started to feel them attack me, hitting all my body parts with either their feet or fists. All I could do was thrash around, hoping to give each of my attackers at least one good hit. I wasn't afraid of getting hurt, I was afraid that they were going to hurt me badly and that I wasn't going to give them anything in return.

"Fuck off!" I shouted to them as I kicked and punched wildly. "Fuck off fuck off fuck off fuck off!"

"Hey! Peacekeepers! Over here!" I heard a girl's voice shout from outside my circle of attackers. She wasn't one of them, she was outside of the ally.

"Oh shit!" One of the girl attackers shouted before the group of attackers ran in the opposite direction of the girl shouting peacekeeper. My attackers may of been running away, but not without leaving trampling over me, giving me one last attack in their retreat.

I sighed in relief as I watched them run away from me. I was in pain, but I quickly got to my feet and grabbed a fist sized rock from the mud like ground and threw it towards the fleeing cowards as hard as I could, hitting one of the girls in the back before she gave a high pitched squeal. That squeal made me feel better.

"Adrienne," I heard the girl behind me say, recognizing her voice now that I wasn't being attacked by six teenagers. "Are you alright?"

I turned around to face my friend, Taylor, and told her

"Yeah, I'm fine, had them on the run till I slipped." It was mostly true.

"Can't believe those jerks," Taylor with with clear annoyance in her voice. "They think that they can say and do whatever they want to you just because. You know." She quietly said the last two words.

"Don't worry about them," I told my friend. "The only thing they have is strength numbers, they have to be in a group to be strong, because alone, they're nothing."

"Yeah." My friend said while smiling. "You and I and Maria alone are better then twenty of them put together."

"You said it. Speaking of which, where is Maria?"

My question was answered by a girl running around the corner with a white t-shirt, white pants that were muddy on the bottom of the legs, and a pair of cheap black sunglasses while holding a lead pipe. Maria looked like a peacekeeper who couldn't afford the real peacekeeper gear.

"Get away from the girl or I swear I'll-" Maria said in her best authority voice that was nothing like a real peacekeeper's before she stopped speaking and saw that there was only Taylor and I in front of her.

I looked at Maria up and down and couldn't help but snicker at her lame attempt to look and sound like a peacekeeper.

"Nice get up, ." I laughed. It wasn't too long before I heard Taylor laughing, before Maria started to laugh.

I was happy to have friends like Maria and Taylor, just like me, they would do just about anything for their friends, even if it meant badly impersonating a peacekeeper.

**Colten Mullican's POV**

Did I remember to do everything before I left? I think so, everything looked done when I left the house. Nah, everything's fine, I'm sure of it, I double checked just to make sure, I don't want Amy and Kyle to take away my food privileges. But it's hard to make everything perfect when everything's so high up.

No, stop thinking about that Colten, you did fine, everything is good, and when you get back from the reapings, everything'll be good. Amy and Kyle are good people, even if they aren't my real parents and they treat me almost like a slave. At least they took me in, unlike some other people.

I sighed as I walked down to the district square for the reapings, feeling the wet mud seep through the thin shoes that Kyle gave me. Darn rain, why'd you have to rain the night before the reapings and make it all muddy when I absolutely had to go outside?

Oh well, could be worse, at least I have a house to go back to, unlike some of the other people in this district.

I heard footsteps splash behind me, and before I could turn around, I felt a boot hit me in the the back, causing me to fall face first into the mud. I heard laugher behind me before I heard a boy say to me

"Sorry there, I thought you were a ball, not a dwarf." Two voices howled with laughter before they walked off towards the square. I picked myself up before brushing off as much mud as I could off my clothes and face.

Damn it. Just what I needed to make my day complete. Couldn't I go one day without someone making fun of me being only three feet tall? That's all people see when they look at me, my size, and that causes me to either ignore me or make fun of me. Telling them to stop making fun of me or telling them to stop judging me by my size only makes it worse, in fact, that's what got me kicked out of my old home and into Amy and Kyle's home.

People don't give me a chance to show them the real me, hell, they don't even talk to me unless it's to make fun of me, or in Amy and Kyle's case, to give me an order.

I reach one of the the booths to sign into the reapings, and I can barley see the Capital attendant who's working the one I'm in front of.

"Name?" She asks calmly, not even looking at me.

"Colton Mullican." I answer.

"Age?"

"Sixteen."

"Tesserae?"

"No thanks."

"Take your place." She tells me before I head over to the center of the square, only to discover that the place looks different from last year. There are still kids standing together in their age groups, but instead of standing out in the open, there are black steel cages that look more like prison cells then a place to keep teenage kids inside, unless their psychopaths of course. What were they were for? I wondered that as I went into the cage that was labeled: 16.

I hated being in this cage, it brought up some bad memories. At least I wasn't the only one in front of an audience this time.

**Adrienne Quintus's POV**

The only thing that annoyed me more then the kids making fun of me, was that those same kids were making fun of my friends, just because they were around me.

"There goes the slut and her slutty friends."

"How much do you think it costs for a foursome?"

"Their mothers must be so proud of their little whores."

The only things that stopped me from taking a swing at those assholes was the fact that there was more then a hundred of them all packed in one convenient place, there were real peacekeepers with real guns, and most of all, because I didn't want my friends to get hurt. They don't deserve to get hurt because of my fights.

I as I walked to my age section, I wondered why we didn't have to sign out name on a piece of paper that was going into the reaping bowl, but that thought disappeared as I saw the black steel cages in front of me.

What the hell? I wondered what they were for as I walked into the one marked: 16.

"Nice of you to join us, slut." A girl behind me taunted, before I turned around and smashed my forehead onto her nose before blood exploded from the point of impact. I didn't have to worry about my friends getting hurt anymore, they had both recently turned seventeen and were in another cage.

The girl I head butted screamed out in pain as she cupped her bloody nose with her hands. The other girls looked like they were going to attack me, but they didn't dare do anything now that the peacekeepers were watching us. Lucky for me that I had no blood on my forehead, otherwise they may have shot me on the spot.

I laughed at the bloody nosed girl before I heard the escort start to talk in the microphone upstage. I turned around to face our green skinned escort.

"As you know, the quarter quell for this year hasn't been announced, but it was kept secret for a reason. Too keep everything fair, the reading of the card was kept a secret from everyone but the president. But you shall all now know what the reading of the card was. I'm not going to bore you with repeating what President Blizzard read, but to put it in short terms, the districts must offer volunteers this year."

Volunteers, what a laugh, the only ones who volunteer are careers, good luck getting someone to volunteer in the other districts.

"And because we know that most of you won't even think of volunteering," the escort said, with a surprising level of sadness. "The president's putting a twist on the reapings, and due to the raising Panem population as well, some of you will have to be..." I heard the escort start to chock up on the last word. "Exterminated."

What? Did I just hear her right? Exterminated?

Thoughts wrapped around me head before I heard our escort sadly call out. "Eighteen."

A few seconds later, I heard the sound of glass break followed by high pitched screams. All of it was behind me. I turned to see what was happening to the eighteen year olds behind me, only to see an inferno that covered everything within the cage. The girls inside there were screaming as they tried to put out the fire that had engulfed their bodies.

It was horrible seeing those girls helplessly try to claw their way out of their scorching deathtrap, their bodies on fire, to hear their screams for help, but as horrible as it was, I couldn't look away.

I heard the screams and cries of other people, but they were nothing like the burning bodies of dead girls walking.

The screams of the girls died down as they fell down and finally died after what seemed like forever, but the crackle of the flames and the stench of burnt flesh was still strong in the air. Cries of family members and friends and random strangers were also in the air. "Any..." The escort sobbed as she tried to finish her sentence. "Any. Volunteers?"

I looked at the charred remains of the girls in the cage marked eighteen, and I made my decision.

"I volunteer!" I shouted. "I volunteer!"

Seconds later, a peacekeeper unlocked the cage door and let me out before closing the door and locking it.

I made my way to the stage, but had to pass the remains of the eighteen year olds. The stench of their death even stronger near them then it had been two cages back, and the sight of their blackened bodies was horrifying.

They didn't deserve this. I mean, I thought about killing some of them because they made fun of me, but they really didn't deserve to die, not like that. They didn't deserve to die at all.

"Name?" The escort asked when I got on stage.

"Adrienne Quintus." I told her, still looking at the bodies of the dead.

"Thank you, Adrienne." She said before she walked over to the boy's reaping bowl, which only had seven slips of paper."

I couldn't help but feel sad, because more undeserving kids were going to die before this reaping's over. "Thirteen."

**Colten Mullican's POV**

The sound of those thirteen year olds screaming fill the square as their bodies were burnt to a crisp.

I look away from the inferno as I think about how this isn't possible. For as long as I've known, the reapings were never like this, they pick a name, they ask for volunteers, then they ship you off to the Capital. This wasn't how it was supposed to work.

"Volunteers?" Our escort asks, holding back sobs.

"I volunteer!" I shout before a peacekeeper unlocks my cage, pulls me out, and locks the cage once again.

As I'm walking to the stage, I think about the kids who'd be dead if I didn't volunteer. I'd probably be next, and even though I'm a small target for the flames, I'd still be in the line of fire. No pun intended.

I also don't want to see them suffer, being burned alive is a horrible way to go.

"Name?" My escort asks when I get up to the stage.

"Colten Mullican." I tell her.

"Thanks, Colten." She says before she tells me to shake hands with my district partner.

I know her, she's the slut of District Six, but that's all I know about her. I don't know if what the people say about her is true, but that's all I have to go on other then that she has blond highlights in her dark hair and that her skin is the colour of bronze.

It's hard to look up at her since she's not looking at me, but at the charred bodies of the deceased, but her dark golden eyes seem to chance shades with every angle.

Her black shirt with large white text that read: AC/DC and she had blue jeans with holes at the knees, both of her clothing items were dirty with mud. In fact, her hair and parts of her body also had some mud on them.

Makes me think of my looks a little. Unlike her where everything stands out, I'm just normal besides my height. Shaggy brown hair and light blue eyes. Normal.

I release her hand before looking back to District Six and think of all the times that I wanted to prove myself. I kept on thinking that if maybe I volunteer for the games I'd be proving to the district that I was more then just someone three feet tall.

I wanted to go into these games before the peacekeepers started torching little kids, but because of the fire making, it only made me more sure to volunteer.

If this was a normal reapings, would I of been happy that I volunteered? Would the other kids of been surprised that I volunteered? Would I finally of gotten some respect?

I think I got all three. I saved other kids and I actually volunteered.

I wonder what the other kids are thinking now? I wonder what my real parents think of me now.

**A/N: Well, the District Six reapings are now up. Fiddlegirl, yet again I got something from your reapings, I'm doing something different for every district. Hope you don't mind...again.**

**Hmmm... How'd I do? I'm not used to doing reapings, but this is what this fic's supposed to help me with.**

**We need more guy tributes.**


	3. District 1

**District One **

**Jenriko "Jen" Florence's POV **

"Ha!" I shouted playfully as a knife flew past my face. "Missed!"

I saw Terry throw another knife at me before I expertly jumped into the air and spread my legs to avoid the knife that flew towards my inner cafes. "Missed my again!" I told him as I landed on the ground, only to see him suddenly throw several knives at me in quick succession.

I didn't expect him to start throwing knives at me like that so soon and was surprised to see the many knives fly towards me, but my training quickly kicked in and I started to do back flips in order to avoid the sharp objects.

The knives struck the wall as I back flipped away from them. I kept up my routine until I heard Terry run out of knives to throw at me. I expertly got back to my feet by doing a somersault and smiled at my friend. "Missed," I told him pointing to the knives he threw at me. "Missed, missed, missed, missed, all missed."

"Damn girl," Terry said, impressed with my skills, as always. "Nothing can hit you."

"I know, right." I told him proudly. Unlike most kids at the training center, I learned how to be defensive just as much as I learned to be offensive. It was thanks to both my mom and dad, who both worked in the training center and had seen too many kids fail due to being too into one or the other.

"Even with your waist length hair, you can still do acrobatic stuff like that." I heard Terry say. "Surprised you don't get tangled up in it or anything. Anyway, get over here and wipe that sweat off yourself."

I ran towards Terry before he threw me a large white towel, which I caught with my right hand before I started to wipe the thin beads of sweat off my forehead. Even though we've only been in here for two hours, training lightly in between breaks, quite a bit of sweat was built up. Not enough that I had to change clothes, but enough that it had to be wiped off with a towel. "There's just one problem though." I heard my friend say.

"And what would that b-" I asked before I felt a hand grab my throat before I got slammed onto the ground. Hard. "What the hell?" I asked, surprised by Terry's actions before I saw a flash of steel appear in front of my throat.

"Did you really think I was out of knives?" Terry asked. His tone wasn't harsh or anything, in fact, it sounded like he was only playing around, so I was only surprised by his actions, not scared.

Terry then smiled before he lifted the knife away from my throat and offered me a hand up with his free right hand, with I gladly took. "Your parents told me to do that to you to show you that you should never let down your guard." He explained as he pulled me up. "Your too careless at times. They want you to be perfect by the time your eighteen."

I made a phfft sound before waving my right hand in front of my face to show that I wasn't taking my parents wishes seriously.

"I'm not going to wait 'till I'm eighteen, I'm volunteering this year. I don't care if it's a quarter quell, being part of a quarter quell'll make this an even bigger adventure, and perhaps more fun." Just think of what the twist might be. Oh, the possibilities. I was having fun just thinking of what the surprise twist this quarter quell might be.

I heard Terry sigh before he shook his head, while at the same time, smiled at me.

"Only you Jen. Only you would disobey your parent's wishes and volunteer at fifteen, at which point your parents say you don't know enough."

"I'm sorry to say this Ter, but I'm better at fighting and stuff then you are, even though you literally live in the training center."

"I don't have the honor of having Bain and Lucille as parents."

"But you have the honor of having me as a training partner." I told him, thinking back to when we first meet. Terry was a little on the unskilled side before I helped get him to the level he's at now. And even though I'm a year younger then him, he doesn't mind that I act teacher to him. He really does live in the training center since the owner takes in orphans and lets them sleep in the training center. just as long as they don't kill each other while he's away.

The weapons are locked up, so they can rule out death by weapons at least. The food that Terry and the other orphans get served is also high quality stuff, so starvation is also ruled out. The only thing to worry about in the training center at night is if someone wants to kill you in your sleep, and that's never happened in the owner's lifetime.

"And as a friend."

"Yeah." I told him cheerfully as I threw the slightly wet towel onto the bench we'd been sitting on, leaving it for my parents to pick up after the reapings. "Now come on, let's get to the reapings, I want to get a good spot in my section so that I can beat the other wannabe volunteers."

"Alright then," Terry said happily. "Let's go."

Terry then turned around before I kicked him in the butt, hard enough to sent him crashing to the floor. "What the?" Terry asked confused.

"Be on your guard Terry." I laughed playfully. "Practice what you preach."

Terry let out a little laugh before I helped him to his feet.

"It wasn't me who told you that," He protested while laughing slightly. "It was your parents."

**Calamity Mershade's POV **

Rain. I hate the rain, the rain brings back bad memories, memories that I wish would remain buried. But nothing remains buried forever, nothing, not even yourself. Or whatever could be considered yourself.

I don't want to go to the square, just in case I meet someone, or worse, I let a darker force take over and do something bad to them. But part of myself wants to go and create trouble, so I get out of my dumpster and walk towards the square against my will.

I can't control everything this body does, part of it isn't me, but at the same time, it is.

The rain soaks me to the bone within half a minute, not that I care, my thoughts are elsewhere, to some place much more important then some rain making me wet.

I look up to the sky to see the dark storm clouds that pour down the rain to this district. It looks like it's night time with the black clouds blocking out the sun, even though it's only about ten in the morning.

Fitting really, dark setting for a dark day along with dark memories.

I should stay away from those thoughts, those thoughts are what get me in trouble, make him do bad things. Things that I can see, but have no control over.

I hope we have a good reapings, for once, so that my life can be a little easier, at least for today.

I feel a sinister force start to surface within me. I manage to make my body stop moving and start, yet again, suppress it from taking over me.

**Jenriko "Jen" Florence's POV **

Terry and I ran for the district square, hoping to get a good spot there, when I crashed into someone in the middle of the street.

I fall onto the soaking wet ground, feeling the thick layer of water on the stone road seep into my dress while feeling the water fall onto my body as my umbrella fell to the ground.

"Ow." I quietly say, rubbing my slightly hurt face as I looked up to the person I ran into. "Sorry about that," I told them. "I was in such a rush to get to the square that I didn't see you."

He didn't say anything, all he did was continue to look at the sky, which I found kind of strange.

I got to my feet before I picked up my umbrella and walked around the guy to face him. "Umm," I said a little confused towards his actions. Or lack of actions. How do you ignore someone who crashed into you like that? "Hellooooo!" I said loudly to him, only to get no response again.

"Hey," Terry said, walking next to me before he waved his hand in front of the boy's face. "Are you alright?" The boy didn't even flinch as Terry waved his hand a couple of inches away his face.

"I think he fell asleep." I told Terry. "Must of been at the training center all night."

"I've never seen him around the training center." Terry told me. "There were about seven people there last night, but this guy wasn't one of them. In fact, I don't even recognize him. Do you?"

I did recognize him. His muscular look along with his dirty blond hair and green eyes weren't uncommon in District One, but I recognized his face with the large amount of scars that covered his face, and the blank look in his eyes, but I couldn't remember his name. I remembered speaking to him once, about three years ago. I couldn't remember where, but I remember that he kept telling me to leave him alone.

He looked lost, just as he had looked three years ago.

Why couldn't I remember him? I was friendly with most of the district and was friends with a good number of them, so of course I knew a lot of people, but I couldn't remember him.

"I recognize him," I told Terry before I reached up and snapped my fingers in front of the boy's face several times, and still nothing. "I spoke to him once."

"Was he always staring into space?" Terry asked.

"No." I told him. "He just wanted to be left alone for some reason."

It was then that the boy looked down at us with those blank eyes of his. It startled Terry and I a little, since we didn't expect him to do anything.

The boy looked at us for a couple seconds before he started to walk away from us. "Hey," I shouted to him, running up to him. "Are you alright?"

"Fine." He said unemotionally.

"Is something wrong?" I asked. "You were standing out in the middle of the rain."

"I'm fine." The boy said, walking faster.

"Is there anything that we can-" I started to ask before he shouted

"Leave me alone!" He then started to run towards the square.

A few moments of silence later, I heard Terry ask me

"What's wrong with him?"

"I don't know." I told him truthfully, remembering that he had said the exact same thing to me three years ago.

I felt sorry for that kid, he isolated himself from people and almost didn't seem sane.

But I really wondered about his blank eyes, they weren't the blank eyes of a cold blooded murderer, or of anything for that matter. They were just, empty, Glass like even.

When I got to the square, I signed in, chatted with some of the kids from school, then went into a closed off cage that was marked: 15. Why were we in cages? Why didn't these cages have bars or holes? Why were we cut off from the outside? I wondered that as I walked into it, before thinking that it might have something to do with the quarter quell. Or maybe they just didn't want us to go all crazy when we volunteered. Either way, it kept us dry at least with the roof over our heads.

But no cage was going to stop me from getting up on stage, all I'd need to do is shout loud enough for the escort to hear me. Get your lungs ready Jen!

"I can't do this!" I heard our district escort's voice shout through the speakers in the corners of our cage.

I turned towards the stage, as did every other girl in the cage, and saw our silver haired escort talking to the head peacekeeper. And if I didn't know better, I'd say that our escort was crying.

All the girls in the cage with me were silent as the escort continued to speak sadly. "I can't do this!"

"You have to and you will do it!" The head peacekeeper shouted to her. "You know what needs to be done!"

"No!" She shouted. Her voice was full of sadness. She had been our escort for as long as I could remember, and from what I've heard from some of the adults, she's been our escort for nearly twenty five years. But I've never seen her like this, she was always cheerful and full of life, and now, she was the opposite. "I can't and I won't!"

Just what was going on here? What couldn't and wouldn't she do?

"Your going to do your god damn job," The head peacekeeper snarled before I saw him pull out his sidearm, and point it towards our escort. "Or you'll end up in a grave."

"You can't kill me," our escort, Goldy, said with fear in her voice, her body posture showing that she was only slightly scared of the weapon in front of her. "President Blizzard won't allow it."

"Won't he?" The head peacekeeper said before a boom occurred through the microphones and a spray of blood shot out of the back of our escort before she fell onto the stage floor, clutching her stomach.

Screams occurred from both inside and outside the cage as girls began to wonder what was really going on. I was wondering what was going on. "President Blizzard knew that you'd try to defend this district, so he gave me orders to kill you if you didn't cooperate. The Capital doesn't have any use for those who get too close to the districts they escort."

Goldy coughed out some blood from her mouth before the peacekeeper with the gun walked up to her before he pointed the handgun at Goldy's face. "President Blizzard sends his regards." Our head peacekeeper said before another boom appeared and a spray of blood erupted from Goldy's head.

Screams occurred from inside the cage as I covered my mouth in shock. No, Goldy did not just die in front of me. She wasn't meant to die. She hadn't done anything wrong, she didn't deserve to die. "Let's get this show on the road!" The head peacekeeper shouted into the microphone. "Since your escort is dead, I am now your escort for the time being, and I'm not going to waste any time drawing from a reapings bowl."

What? So your just going to break the rules? Just like that?

"Girls of the age of eighteen, welcome to the tenth quarter quell, and may the odds never be in your favor."

At first nothing happened, we all turned towards the eighteen year old section, and nothing was happening, but then the girls inside the cage marked: 18, started to attack each other. First one girl, then another girl, then another girl. Soon they were all attacking each other viciously, tearing each other apart with their bare hands, until there was only one left. And she then tore her own face off with her own hands before she fell to the ground in a bloody mess.

I hoped that those girls were just unconscious and weren't really dead. Despite their bloody wounds and other horrific injuries only seen in the arena, I hoped that they were alive. They couldn't of been dead, they weren't going into the arena, they were innocent, just like Goldy was. "Now who wants to volunteer?"

"I do!" I shouted upon reflex. "I do!" I shouted again. While I was volunteering to save some of the other kids in the district, my first thought was that I wanted to go into the games. It was what I wanted and what I was raised for, so the thoughts of saving people, unfortunately, came as a third thought after wondering what my parents might say to me.

I didn't feel good about it, but at the same time, I was happy that I was going into the games.

Next thing I knew, I was on the stage, looking a Goldy's dead body laying on the steel floor of the stage with crimson liquid pooling around the upper half of her body. A look of fear in her eyes that now stared at nothing. I thought of that as a good thing, she never gave in, and didn't do what she didn't want to do.

"Name?" The head peacekeeper asked me.

"Jenriko Florence." I told him. "And at least Goldy didn't see what would of became of those girls, because of you."

"She can see them in Hell." He told me before shouting out. "Boys! Sixteen!"

**Zane's POV **

This was so much fun! Watching those kids murder each other with their bare hands. Watching them tear out their faces and gouge out eyes and bite off noses and watch the blood spray everywhere and create red rorschach blood splatter on the cage walls. I couldn't hear any of their screams, but I could tell that they were going crazy, and screaming from that and the pain they were inflecting on each other.

Oh man, what fun it is to watch the pointless slaughter of innocents.

_You call that fun!? How can you call that fun?! _

Shut up, you just can't appreciate it. It's why you were the outcast of this district, you didn't like the killings in the Hunger Games, in fact, you didn't like the games at all.

_I tolerate the games, and I used to like them until you gave me a heavy douse of reality! And I don't like that you have a sadistic fixation on it! _

Isn't that how we were raised? To become careers? To go into that arena and do what was expected of us? To bring glory to our district and become richer then rich and live like kings!

_I gave up on that a long time ago! _

Well I haven't. Well, I've only ever wanted to do one of those things in the first place.

"Any volunteers?" The head peacekeeper asked, giving me the opportunity I was waiting for.

_Don't! Don't! Don't! _

Don't what? Don't not volunteer? Alright.

"I volunteer!" I shouted before any of the other boys could even utter a word. The slaughter in front of them was just too sudden, too close to home for them. They didn't expect it to happen so soon and so close to home. I knew that feeling all too well on both sides of good and bad.

_No! You didn't! No! _

Yes I did, and there's nothing you can do about it.

A peacekeeper unlocked the door to this cage, grabbed me out, then closed it behind him and locked it once again before escorting me to the stage.

I saw the sorrowful faces of the adults, teens, and younger kids as I moved passed them. They were mourning their friends, their family, their classmates, or just strangers that got picked right in front of them.

Pathetic. None of you were worthy of being called careers if this shocked you so much. You were going into the games but couldn't handle death? Pathetic.

I got up on stage and ignored the dead Capital women beside my feet and focused on the girl in front of me.

I gave her a smile before looking around at the dark area and heavy rain. "Beautiful day, isn't it Jenriko."

_You call this beautiful?! _

"You could say that for us," Jenriko said. "But not for them," She said looking towards the corpses of the dead teens. "And her." She said looking to the late escort.

"They're what made this day beautiful." I told the young girl. "They're deaths brightened my day up."

_Stop talking to her! _

No. I don't think I will.

"At least their suffering ended." Jenriko said to me, trying to keep a happy mood. Trying to look at what nearly everyone would call the bright side.

"But your suffering is yet to come." I told her.

_Shut up! _

"Not if I let it." Jenriko said, putting on a brave face that glared at me, telling me to shut up or else. "And I can more then handle myself against the likes of you."

I laughed at her, she was too cocky for her own good.

I reached my hand out to grab her.

_Don't you fucking dare! _

Oh come on, look at her, she's so tiny and and frail looking, she couldn't possibly hurt us.

_Just shut up and don't hurt her! _

I change the direction of my hand and lean down and grab the late escort by the top of her dress and pull her dead body up. I was never really going to hurt that blonde girl, that was for later.

"Really?" I asked her as I reached my free hand into the the hole in the center of the dead women's head and pulled out some of the warm red liquid from her head. "Cause all I see is another dead girl."

I then licked the blood off my fingers while looking at the girl take in a look of surprise.

_Damn it! Why don't you stop being like that for once in our lifetime? _

Cause I'm not a bitch like you, Calamity.

**Jenriko "Jen" Florence's POV **

What was wrong with this guy? He was sticking his fingers into Goldy's head to taste her blood? This guy wasn't sane. And those eyes of his, they weren't the confused, glass like eyes that I saw before, the eyes I was looking into now was the eyes of someone with an ice cold heart as black as a moonless night. Was this really the same person who ran away from me?

"Tell the Capital your name boy." Our head peacekeeper demanded towards the boy, not caring that he looked like he was eating Goldy's brain.

"Calamity." The boy said calmly. "Calamity Mershade."

It was then that things started to click into place. Calamity Mershade, the boy who's home was burned down in an arson attack six years ago. The one who killed that thirteen year old girl five years ago. The one who had escaped from the mental correctional facility four years ago.

I now recognized him fully, and it made me a little more nervous being around him, but he didn't scare me, I could handle him if he tried anything towards me.

I felt the same as I did when I found out who he really was all those years ago, how I talked to him without realizing just who and what he was. Surprised. I was nervous being around him, but not scared. "Happy Hunger Games, Jenriko."

**A/N: Darn, it's hard doing Calamity, mainly because he's a complex character. A little hard to do Jenriko near the second half, but she was at least easier then Calamity. Anyway, I hope I did both of them justice. And if not, I will later in the story. **

**To those who want to submit and have read this far, no more females are open at the time being. And and now psychos, I've got my one and only psycho now. You can create careers, but no psychos. I need males. I swear, nobody submits males, I bet males don't even submit males XD.**


	4. District 8

**District Eight**

**Malik Broker's POV**

The boy below me stopped moving.

Finally, I thought he'd never stop fighting.

I dropped the trash can lid I had been hitting him with to the ground before I grabbed his ankles and dragged his body over to a pile of scrap machine parts and covered him with said items.

He was still alive, so I only buried him enough that he wasn't going to be discovered by the cleaner of the factory, or by some random pass byer, or some kid looking to make something from scraps. I left enough room for him to get some air before leaving him behind and going back to the shit hole I called home.

Damn. I didn't get anything useful, the only thing I found was a single coin, and I got attacked by that kid over it.

I hope that I don't get attacked on my back home, one fight was enough for me, I'm too hurt and out of energy to fight another person, especially of that person is determined to steal my coin and is armed with a lead pipe.

My back and right arm hurt like hell because of him and his weapon. Only by using the trash can lid as a shield and a weapon was I able to defeat him.

I was hurt, but at least I was one coin richer then I was when I woke up.

A single coin, maybe it can buy me and Phoebe some stale bread from the bakery. Most likely not though, they'd probably more likely give me half a single, stable bread stick with the money I had.

Hopefully Phoebe found something useful, something that I could sell in the back alleys for a coin or two. Worst comes to worst, I'll beat someone for their money, or break into their house and steal items of value. I didn't want the attention it would draw, but I wanted to live, and if I needed some attention to do that, so be it.

"Malik!" A girl's voice called out.

I turned around to see a very familiar girl.

The girl ran up to me and smiled cheerfully. "How's it going Malik?"

You should know, not good. "Same as usual?" She asked.

I said nothing, but I gave her a little nod, just so that she wouldn't start making us stuff up and start saying how she thought I was doing. Which was mostly false. "Sorry to hear that."

We walked a little ways down the street, just entering the good part of the poor part of the district when Anna spoke up again. "Hey, you know, instead of wondering around the District aimlessly,"

Who ever said I was wondering around aimlessly? "How about I take you and your, uh," She paused for only the briefest second. "Sister out for breakfast. My treat, since it is reaping day and it's your sister's second year going in. Plus, you look like you need something to cheer you up and stuff."

I tapped her on the back to show her that I'd like that.

Anna wasn't a bad person, she was nice and everything, but I often wondered why she'd want to be around me. She was a rich girl, the daughter of a rich clothing manufacture who had everything. She also had boys running after her, either for her money, good looks, or both. Meanwhile, there was me, poor and starving with only the dirty and torn clothes on my back. I was so poor that I used used machine oil to make my hair spiky, if only to try and show people not to mess with me. After all, the tough looking kids seem to be the ones that slick their hair with oil.

I suspected that Anna's friends were the reason she was hanging around me. They were getting a cheap laugh out of this and had told Anna to do hang out with me for more laughter. They thought that I was stupid, but I was on to them, even if I wouldn't prove it. I just knew. "Great." Anna said happily as she smiled at me. "Go get your sister and we'll meet again at the bakery in the executive area."

I kept on walking, but Anna seemed to know my routine, so she turned around and walked away.

Anna's friends might be getting a cheap laugh out of their friend hanging out with me, but I didn't care, Anna had her uses, and if anything, she was good company.

**Vida Rosalyn Harkle's POV**

"Again Mr and ," I said to my one and only friend's parents as Breanne and I walked out of the house. "Thanks for letting me stay over on such short notice. I know that it's irritating for someone to show up at the last minute without any warning or anything, but I didn't really have any other choice, except maybe sleeping outside, which I didn't really want to do, but I could understand if you didn't want me here, but still, thanks for letting me stay here."

"No problem." thankfully said for some reason. "Just don't get into any trouble with Breanne around."

"I won't." I told him. "I wouldn't want Breanne getting into trouble because of me, unless it was for a good reason."

"Just stay safe." simply said before he closed the door behind us.

"Your dad's awfully nice, considering that I knocked on your door in the middle of the nice and asked if I could stay with you at the last minute."

"Yeah." Breanne quietly said.

"I know, it was a pain for him and your mom, but I'll make it up to them." I then thought for a little bit before adding. "Hopefully." I didn't really know how to thank them. Maybe I'll buy them some food, some of that strawberry jam that people seem to go crazy for.

"Okay." Breanne quietly said again.

"I hope you don't mind, but need to back to my home and pick something up, not to mention, to see if my parents are alright. I mean, they're good and all, but...Yeah. Sometimes they can be a little bad at times." Breanne remained silent.

As we walked back to my house, I wondered what the secret quarter quell was going to be. Maybe it was nothing and they were just keeping it a secret to make us scared, when in reality, it was just a normal Hunger Game. Just a scare tactic. Or maybe there really was a twist in the games and it was kept a secret for good reason.

I talked to Breanne about it, and she just listened, occasionally putting in her own little opinion. Breanne was a good listener, I liked that about her, I could talk to her about anything. And if she could only brave up a little more, I'd listen to her as well.

"And that's why everyone is shitting their pants over this quell." I told my friend before I heard a deep, male voice growl at me.

"Where the hell were you last night?"

I turned to look at my dad, and saw that he had a look that told me that he wasn't pleased with my actions last night.

"I went to Breanne's house." I told him. And before he could answer, I told him why. "Because you and mom were arguing with each other and I didn't want to be around it."

"You know better then to walk out of this house in the middle of the night." My dad snapped at me, like he never even heard what I just said. "It's not safe out there at that time of night."

"Yeah yeah, I've heard it a million times dad," Literally, I've heard it since I could walk, and maybe some before. "I can take care of myself you know."

"You think that you can take on some junkie asshole with a knife?" My father challenged. "You think that you can handle an adult? Or a gang? Or just some desperate person who's so high out of their mind that they can't tell if they've been shot or not?"

"Oh good, your here." I heard my mother say from a far distance away. Her voice sounded quiet, so I ignored her and focused on dad, whatever mom needed could wait.

"The bullies at school hate me, but they also fear me," I told my dad. And it was true, there were bullies at my school, and like most of the local thugs and previous bullies that I encountered before, most of them just talked and acted tough. And while there were some tough ones, they never expected anyone to actually fight them. I regret to say that I didn't win all my fights with thugs and bullies, but they left me alone once they found out that I wasn't an easy target, especially the bullies at school, I made them look like fools when I challenged them. Win or lose, their egos got knocked down at least a little. They hated me, but they feared me. "I think I can handle a couple of so called toughs."

"Vida." I heard my mom say again.

"Not all of them are bullies you short sighted girl."

"Short sighted?" I shouted to my dad as I took a step towards him in anger. "Short sighted! I knew to get out of there once I heard you and mom arguing!"

"Vida! Lyle!" Mom shouted, but I ignored her calls and focused on the battle in front of me. Dad thought that I was short sighted, but I dealt with problems myself, and from what I've seen, they produced excellent results that kept me safer then the alternate. I knew how to solve problems, he just didn't understand.

"Do you even know what we were talking about last night?" My father challenged.

I paused for a second. Truth be told, I didn't really know what they were arguing about, but that didn't matter, they were arguing, and that was all that mattered.

"You were arguing, that's all I need to know." I told him.

"Your anger issues." My dad told me. "We were talking about your anger issues. We know about all those fights you've been in and we've seen how easily your provoked. We know why your hated in the district and we've going to put a stop to that."

Before I could even think of a retort, dad turned me around and pushed me towards mom. "And your mother has a surprise for you, go with her and see what she's got for you."

"Oh I see." I said smiling wickedly towards him as I walked towards mom. "You don't have what it takes to beat me. You can't finish what you've started. I've won this argument and you don't have any ammunition left."

"Vida." My mom said gently to me. "Don't irritate you father, I want this argument to just end so that we can continue on with our lives."

"Mom, I need to win this argument." I explained to her. "You wouldn't understand."

Before dad could say anything, mom called out.

"Fine. You win. Can we just move on?"

"No!" My father and I shouted at the same time.

**Malik Broker's POV**

After that meal that Anna provided for me and Phoebe at the rich area of the district, we headed over to the square for the reapings.

I was glad for that. I looked too out of place in that area. Phoebe and I both, with our old and worn down, torn and stained clothes, unclean hair while chomping down the food that Anna was providing for us like wild animals. We got more then a couple looks from people with the same status as Anna. They looked at Phoebe and I like we were trash, and truth be told, we looked like it compared to even just standing beside Anna with her top tailored sky blue dress, fake silver bracelets and high quality shoes. Just think about us in the rich part of town around more Annas.

"I'm glad that you and your sister enjoyed yourselves." Anna happily told us as we walked to the square. Groups of kids had already started to gather. The rich, the poor, and everyone in between were gathering at the square, so unlike the bakery, we weren't given third glances. "How'd you like it?"

To show her how much I appreciated her giving Phoebe and I enough food to live another three days, I gave her the coin I had worked for three hours to find. But when I tried to give it to her, she placed her hand in front of my face, telling me to stop. I did. "You don't have to give me anything." She told me, still keeping her hand in front of my face. "I'm just glad that you enjoyed it. That's all I need to know."

Thanks Anna.

I heard some girls call Anna's name before she turned around, waved to them, then turned back to me. "I'll see you later." She said to me. I nodded once before she turned around and ran towards her friends.

This day was a good day, even though it was reaping day and that two kids were going to go to the Capital to prepare for the Hunger Games, this was a good day for me and Phoebe at least. A full stomach and another year of not getting chosen. While I sort of feel sorry for the kids that are going into the games, I'm glad that it isn't me or Phoebe.

I signed in before I got pointed towards a cage marked: 17. I looked at the cage in wonder and tried to think of why we'd need to be put in a cage. I had an even worse feeling about the black box above the cages.

The cage wasn't like prison bars, it was a solid box. We couldn't get out of them if we were ants.

I saw Phoebe look at the black boxes in fright as she refused to go inside the cage marked: 13, but she got pushed in by a couple of peacekeepers.

Age groups, they were separating us by age groups, like they normally did on reaping day, but why were they doing this?

More people walked into their cages until there were no teenagers left to heard in.

"Morning District Eight!" Our escort shouted cheerfully into the microphone. "Today, we have a very special kind of reapings." Like we didn't notice already. "Because of the tenth quarter quell and Panem's population souring population, we've come up with a way to kill two birds with one stone!"

Lucky us. The Hunger Games arena was now going to have more kids in there this year. Damn, that means that Phoebe and I both have greater chances of getting in this year. "Let's start with boys this time. Why not give three changes this year."

Oh joy. Not.

The escort pulled out a piece of paper from the boy's reaping bowl, which was surprisingly empty compared to former years, before unfolding it and looking at the name. "Twelve."

Twelve? Who has a name like that?

It was then that I heard the sound of screeching metal behind me. I turned around, along with every other head in the cage I was in, to see that the bottom of the black box above the twelve year olds was open.

At first, I thought water was pouring out of the black box, only to see that the twelve year olds boys inside were screaming and melting. Their skin burning, sizzling, corroding, before it happened to the layers of skin underneath them, before their bones dissolved in the clear liquid.

Acid.

Why the hell were they doing this? Was this what they were talking about with Panem's souring population? "Any volunteers?" Our escort asked. She was as calm as could be, like our lives meant nothing to us. But then again, our lives never meant anything to them, they watched the Hunger Games for the entertainment value, and as such, we were nothing more then a product to them.

Thinking of how she picked a piece of paper with an age number on it and easily murdered a group of twelve year olds with no mercy made me think of Phoebe's group.

"I volunteer!" I shouted. Or, at least it sounded like I shouted.

A peacekeeper came to my cage, opened the door, and let me out before closing the cage door behind me and escorted me to the stage.

"What's your name?" The escort asked. I didn't want to tell her my name, so I showed her my middle finger. All she did was laugh. "We'll find your name out wither you tell us or not."

Fine, whatever. The only reason I'm here is so that if you pick the number thirteen, I can stop you from reading it one way or another.

I watched her pick a piece of paper from the girl's reaping bowl before she returned to the microphone. I saw the number through the piece of paper, and it wasn't thirteen. "Sixteen." She announced, before I heard a girl's voice shout out, before the screams of dozens more females started to scream out in pain.

**Vida Rosalyn Harkle's POV**

"No! No! No! NO!" I shouted as I pounded my fist on the clear cage walls as I watched the see through liquid turn everyone inside the sixteen year old section into nothing.

Even among the all people inside, I only had eyes on one girl inside. Breanne.

I watched my friend scream out in pain as she held her face with as the skin of her hands melted away.

The reapings, the Hunger Games, they were part of my everyday life and I learned to accept them into my life. But this was unacceptable! Breanne wasn't given a chance to save herself, she was chosen and executed at the whim of a piece of paper. But unlike those who got chosen in the normal reapings, she didn't even get a chance to save herself. She couldn't fight back, she couldn't do anything. She was innocent!

"Any volunteers?" Our escort said, not giving a care that she had killed my only friend, along with other kids who were equally murdered in such a cruel way.

I felt the heat rising in my body as I thought of what I should do.

Suddenly, the dark grey dress that my mom forced me to wear, even after I argued with her that I shouldn't, she someone managed to get me into it before telling me to brush my wavy brown, almost black hair for once. I kept on insisting that my standard ponytail was alright, but she kept on insisting that I look nice. It wasn't until dad started to talk to her that she finally caved in.

Suddenly, this stupid dress, the stupid argument with my mom, didn't seem very important. Not compared to what just happened to the one and only friend that I had.

"I volunteer!" I shouted. "I volunteer! Let me out of this cage so I can do what needs to be done!"

A peacekeeper unlocked the cage door before I started running up to stage. Towards our fucking escort who held on to that fucking grin of her's, like she was glad that she gave those kids a death sentence and was able to carry it out.

"Oh thank God, a lively one for once. I always hatted those sulking kids who-"

"You fucking bitch!" I shouted as I tackled her to the ground.

She offered no resistance. She was weak. Like me, she had a thin body, but unlike me, she didn't have any muscle to aid her when someone attacked her.

I slammed her body onto the ground before I got on top of her chest, placed my knees on her arms, and stated to beat the tar out of her. "You heartless fucking bitch!" I shouted at her as I pounded her face with my fists as hard as I could. "Your going to wish that you had a sad sulking kid when I'm done turning your head into jam!"

Suddenly, I felt my body start to violently twitch on it's own. My body moved on it's own, causing me to fall off the escort as my body spazzed out on me.

I looked up to my district partner, the other boy that volunteered. The boy who's hair was styled with homemade gel, but wasn't a tough guy wannabe. He hardly talked, but he didn't need to talk. Like me, he talked with actions, and it wasn't to impress people either. He kept to his business. Thin yet strong, I once saw him fight one of the bullies around the middle class district, and win.

Those dark brown eyes looked down at me, like I was nothing to him as well. It irritated me. He was just as heartless as the Capital. "Fuck. You. Too." I told him.

My body unexpectedly, violently, made me roll away from him. I then saw a peacekeeper holding a taser in his hand. He was the one who had shocked me. "Fuck. You. Too."

**A/N: I now know why people want to stop writing the reapings, and I'm only a third of the way done. **

**Anyway, I'm more satisfied with this chapter then I was with the D1 reapings.**


	5. District 4

**District Four**

**Selene Ripple's POV**

Underwater is the perfect place to be when you want to calm down and think. When you want to get away from everything and just relax and be at peace.

It's great place to be. The silence of being beneath the surface, the calmness that you get, it's nothing short of perfect.

It's the perfect place to die. What better place to die then somewhere that makes you feel at peace? If your going to die, might as well make the best of it.

Though, I did hate the pain that burned inside my lungs when I began to run out of oxygen, it made dying underwater unpleasant. Worse then something on the surface, say, a bullet to the head or a spear through the eye. Damn. You just can't win with death can you.

I felt hands grab my body before I felt myself being raised up from the ocean floor and head towards the surface.

I opened my eyes to see that two girls had their hands around my arms and were pulling me towards fresh air. I didn't stop them. I saw no reason to.

As soon as all three of us broke the surface, I heard heavy gasps come from the two girls on either side of me, one of them more cough like then actual gasping.

"Selene!" Dawn shouted in between gasps for air. "What were. You doing. Down there?"

"Thinking." I told her truthfully.

"More like. Killing. Yourself." Dawn shot back. "You were. Down there. For nearly. Six. Minutes. In. Deep water."

"Wasn't killing myself." I told her, quickly regaining air. A lot quicker then they were, especially Melody, who had water flying out of her mouth whenever she gasped for air. "I was just thinking. Can't I even do that in peace anymore?"

"If you want to think of killing yourself then do that without really doing it." Dawn told me bitterly. "Fourteen is too young of an age to die. Or even think of dying."

I've been thinking of dying for years, your never too young to die, or think of dying. And I wasn't going to kill myself, but seeing where this conversation was heading, I don't think that my friends would believe me, so I just didn't say anything.

As we were heading to shore, I just hoped that they'd drop the subject and leave me alone later. While I like having them around, I like being alone better.

My friends and I reached the sandy shore that bordered my home within a couple minutes of swimming steadily. We were all good swimmers, as expected from everyone in District Four. If you couldn't swim, you were looked at as dead weight, useless, even if you did useful things in the district. If you couldn't swim, you were worthless. Shunned.

But even so, I wish that I was hated for not being able to swim, it would be a lot less painful.

"Selene!" I heard the voice of my father shout from our house, which rested on top of a short cliff that was about thirty feet high at the edge of the ocean. "What have I told you about diving?"

Oh no. Not this again. Ever since that one accident he's been all over my case about diving. "You could get hurt, or worse."

"Sorry dad!" I yelled. "I just wanted to calm my nerves before heading over to the reapings! With the secret quell and all!"

My dad shook his head before shouting back to me.

"You don't need to worry! What are the odds of you being picked? And even if you were picked, someone would volunteer and take your place."

"That's not what I'm worried about!" I told my dad as I thought of the best way to say what I was of thinking last night, and was going to do today. But I didn't have any fancy ways of saying it, or any way of making it sound good, so I just went out and said it. "I'm not worried about getting picked, because I'm volunteering for the games!"

I then heard both Dawn and Melody both gasp at what I had just announced. I couldn't hear my father's gasp, but from his expression, I could see that he had the same reaction as my two friends.

Seconds of silence passed, only broken by the breaking of the ocean's waves, before another sound covered up those breaking waves.

"Oh hell no!" My father exclaimed.

**Dylan Drake's POV**

"You three geeks still reading?" I heard my sister, Creek, ask playfully.

I looked up from my book about star navigating to see that she was leaning against the door frame, looking at me and my two best friends inside my room.

"Nooo," I told her with heavy sarcasm. "We're investing our time in pointless activities that'll get us nowhere in our lives."

"Looks like only two of you are doing that while the other is doing something useful." Creek jokingly said as she pointed to my right.

I looked over to see Caspian sleeping, eagle spread, on my bed, taking up most of the space. "The rest of you can go back to, learning about star gazing."

"Hey," I interjected. "Star navigation has been used for hundreds of years, thousands even. It was passed down by fishermen all over the world so that they wouldn't get lost unawares."

"I know that Dylan." My sister sighed. "Anyway, get ready for the reapings and come downstairs, mom and dad want to talk to you about volunteering."

"Not this again." I sighed, thinking back to last night, when I told my parents that I'd been chosen to volunteer. While mom and dad wanted me to become a victor, like Creek, they were worried about my less that satisfactory physical abilities. In their eyes, I spent too much time in the library and not enough time in the gym, thus, making them think that I wasn't ready to volunteer, like Creek had when she was my age three years ago. "I was chosen among all the juveniles in the academy," I explained to my sister. "Out of the thousands of kids they could of chosen, I got sanctioned to volunteer. They didn't authorize you to volunteer, they didn't recommend you to volunteer, all you did was go with the mainstream and shout: I volunteer! Before fighting your way to the stage."

Creek wasn't fazed by my explanation, nor did she seem to care. All she did was look blankly at me, waited until I had finished saying my say, then responded.

"Mom and dad still want to talk to you." Waste of breath that was, I still had to tell my parents that I was ready, and that I was going to bring them another victor and make their dreams become a reality. A complete one.

"I'll be down in ten." I told her simply as I placed my book on my desk, after which, Creek exited my room and went downstairs to eat breakfast.

I turned towards Caspian and shook him awake.

Caspian muttered unintelligently as his brainwaves started to get back to standard thought again.

"Hibernation has ended early buddy," I told him before I grabbed my reaping clothes, a white dress shirt and black pants that conveniently hung two feet away from my bed. "My kin want to talk to me before I volunteer today."

Caspian stretched a little before he got off my bed.

"I don't know why they'd want to talk to you," He yawned. "You got recommended to volunteer, and Creek was your age when she volunteered."

"It's because of me being ingenious rather then vigorous." I explained, knowing that my parents disapproved of me spending more time in the library then out in the training center.

"Can you dumb that down for me please?" Caspian asked. Damn, I keep on forgetting to tell things in simple form for Caspian. Unlike Ermin and I, he's not used to listening to our choice of words. Caspian always did say that that was one of my annoying quirks.

"It means that his parents want him to be more of a brute then a genius." Ermin told my friend.

"Well Creek wasn't a brute, she was just good at killing people."

"And my parents don't think that I'm up to the task." I explain further. "They think that an egghead like me won't last past the bloodbath because of my studying. It also don't help that I'm dependent on these glasses. If I lose them, then I'm blind, my sister's a good fighter, and so am I, but mom and dad think that because of these glasses, I'm subordinate to Creek."

"Well whatever your parents say to you," Caspian said while walking out of my room. "Just remember that people can't get close to you if you use your spears right."

Leave it to the only true career in my circle of friends to remind me. I threw my spears straight and true, and spears, being a mid distance melee weapon by themselves, could keep even someone with a sword from reaching me if I did the right things.

Yes. Caspian was right. As long as I used my spears right, I wouldn't have to worry about anything. The arena would affect whatever plans I make prior to entering, but I could always make a new one. And while I wasn't the best at fighting, too many careers have fallen due to lack of planning.

I wasn't going to let that happen to me.

**Selene Ripple's POV**

Dad. My over protective dad, hated the idea of me going into the games. Can't say that I was surprised, after all, dad didn't like me diving off the cliff that our house was on, so imagine how he reacted when he found that I was volunteering for the games.

As I change into my reapings clothes, a simple white dress, I heard my dad telling me to not going into the games.

I told him that I was going to wither he liked it or not, and when asked why I was going into the games, I told him that I was going in because of my reputation as the freak I was. I told him that maybe if I won, I'd finally get some respect from the district and not be seen as the stupid girl I was, because if there's one thing that the district needs, it's change.

My father, though he didn't like that I was going into the games, knew that there was no changing my mind, as I'd been thinking about it for nearly two years now, told me to be careful. I was going to, cause after all, people get injured just trying to get to the stage.

Walking thought the streets of the district, I saw people whisper about me as I passed. Though I couldn't hear what they were saying, I still knew that they were talking about me, it didn't take a genius to figure it out, and if they were talking about me, they were talking about my 'condition'. My 'flaw'. Just like they always do.

Way to ruin a perfectly sunny day everybody.

Everyone talked about it, and while they didn't say it to my face, I had heard them say it one more then one occasion. It was like my condition was the plague, and it was far from it as far as I was concerned, I was just different.

It was so widely talked about that the only people in the district that didn't talk about it were my father, and my two friends. That's how bad it seemed to be.

I saw a girl no older then eight point to me and start talking to her mom about my condition. Damn, find something else to talk about District Four. I just hope that I can get this reaping done as fast as possible so that I can get away from all of you.

I walked up to the sigh in booth and signed my name before going over to the fourteen year old section. I found this year a little strange. This year, we weren't separated by rope, we were separated by black cages that looked like over sized jail cells. What was going on here?

I went over to the cage marked: 14, and as I entered, the other girls, despite how packed the cage was, tried to keep a distance away from me. Not too obvious, but obvious neither the less. I'm not a disease! God! You all act like I'm the only one in the world with this condition!

"District Four!" A loud voice erupted suddenly from the many megaphones spread across the square. The voice came from our escort, Venus Valentine, A.K.A The pumpkin lady. Only in her early twenties, she's got to be one of the youngest escorts this district has ever had. With orange hair and orange lips, she could look pretty if she didn't have orange skin as well.

Every year, I kept on thinking how she could even walk in those twelve inch heels that she walked in. But this year, I saw that she was struggling to even stand straight in those heels.

She was off balance for a few seconds before she kicked her high heels off and started to speak with slurred words. She had been drinking. But why? She was normally happy and energetic and would flirt with the boys that volunteered. Why had she been drinking on what was her flirting day? "I'm sorry District Four!" She cried out with sadness. "But I've got no choice. Due to the orders of president Blizzard and the reading of the card, many of you are going to be executed."

It was then that kids started to whisper among themselves. They didn't believe it, and why should they? Executions weren't part of the reapings, never have been, so why do them.

"They're not going to really execute us, are they?" Selene asked worryingly.

"Of course not," I told her confidently. "This is the reapings not an execution."

"Fifteen!" Venus suddenly announced.

I watched as all the heads inside our cage looked towards the fifteen year old cage, to see that peacekeepers were dousing the girls inside the fifteen year old cage with water.

I didn't think too much about it, until one of the peacekeepers turned on his taser, wrapped tape around the device, then tossed it at the soaking wet girls inside the cage.

I suddenly saw the girls inside the drenched cage start to shake around violently and shout in pain before one by one, they fell to the ground, until all that remained was the sound of crackling energy.

The entire district seemed to be shocked by their actions. They had just electrocuted every fifteen year old in the district to death, including Melody, one of the nicer people in the district who didn't judge me because of my 'condition'. She was a quiet girl that never hurt anyone in her life, she didn't deserve what just happened to her. "Anyone want to volunteer?" Venus asked with sadness in her voice, like she was going to cry. "If nobody volunteers, another age group will die."

"I volunteer!" I shouted before anyone else could mutter a word.

As much as I didn't like the people in this district, I didn't want them to die like Melody. That, plus the fact that I wanted to volunteer anyway.

A peacekeeper unlocked my cage door and guided me up the stage until I was next to our orange coloured escort. "What's your name?" She asked me. The stench of alcohol in her breath was strong and I took a step away from her to avoid the smell.

"Selene Ripple." I answered.

"Welcome Selene." Venus told me before walking over to the boys reaping bowl, picked up a piece of paper and read out the number "eighteen."

**Dylan Drake's POV**

Our pumpkin escort called out the number eighteen before the peacekeepers reproduced what they had done to the fifteen year old girls moments ago. They doused the boys with basins of water before one of them turned on his electric taser, taped the button, then tossed it into the shallow pool of water along with the soaked victims.

I was stunned at first, and a little uncomfortable watching those kids die right in front of me, but I quickly shook if off. I had seen death before, I had seen it on T.V. But still, it was right in front of me, and it was different then seeing it on a screen.

Still, twenty three more kids were going to die in the arena, and possibly by my hand. If I couldn't handle seeing death now, what makes me think that I can handle it in the arena?

"Any volunteers?" Our drunken escort asked.

"I volunteer!" I shouted.

A peacekeeper unlocked the cage door before he guided me to the stage.

When I got onto the stage, I didn't get too close to Venus in case she decided to molest me. She was notorious for her brief dalliances with our volunteers, and I wasn't going to get involved with her wordly or sexually, and that meant no touching me in front of the entire district.

"Name?' She asked with drunken words that were totally out of character for her.

"Dylan Drake." I simply told her.

"Thank you Dylan." She said. Like she thought that I had volunteered to save more kids. No, I didn't volunteer to save lives, I volunteered to go into the arena.

That girl, Selene Ripple, was here for the same reason I'm guessing. She wanted to show everyone that she was worth something, someone to respect rather then vilify. She was only tolerated in the district because her father's a rich pearl diver who gives lessons to whoever pays, and you get to keep whatever pearls you manage to find. She didn't volunteer for anyone, she only volunteered for herself, like the careers we are.

Just as I was going to prove that I wasn't just a bookworm to my parents, she was going to try to prove to the district that she was more then just a homosexual to those homophobes. I don't want to kill her, but if she gets in my way, she'll get what's coming to her.

**A/N: Hope you all like this, once I'm done the next district I'll be half way done. Yay. Reapings are hard. Dylan, you made me use words that I normally wouldn't use. **

**Sorry to all of you for not giving enough description about things, but I don't want to describe everything in the background and stuff, I want to get the reapings done ASAP.**

**Next up is District Three.**

**AthenaGal01, I made some changes on Selene because I think that being in a career district, Selene would have more reason to volunteer then the one you gave me. Oh yes, and Mel had to die, because one does not simply survive a death sentence.**

**Oh yes, and to all of you, sorry that I didn't reply to your reviews, but I do really appreciate them. So thank you, all of you.**


	6. District 3

**District Three **

**Caia Wicken's POV **

What. Was. This?

"Caia! Caia!" My twelve year old Lanie and Mica cried out proudly as they showed off their work, which looked more like a nuclear explosion, or better yet, a nightmare, then anything else. "Look what we made!"

Whatever they were holding I didn't want to look at, because all I could focus on was what was behind them. Behind them was a messy room with dirty walls that were splattered with black marks and brown lumps.

I screamed out in panic as I picked up a cloth and started to wipe the substances off the wall, the counters, and everything that was in the kitchen.

"What the hell you two?" I shouted in a panic. "What did you do to make this mess? Mom and dad will be up any moment now and-"

"What happened here?" I heard the voice of my mom ask rather calmly. I don't know how she could keep so calm with this disaster in front of her, if she was even looking at it.

"We made breakfast!" The twelve year old twins shouted proudly. "Look look! We made oatmeal!"

How do you make oatmeal and create something that represents and explosion?! "So do you like it?" They asked excitedly. "Do you do you do you?"

No! You made a giant mess and created a lot of work! Mom and dad work hard enough without you two making a big mess of everything!

"I like it very much," My mom kindly told them. "Thank you."

"Yay!" The twins shouted in triumph, totally ignoring the fact that dad was trying to get as much sleep as he could before the reapings. "She like it! She liked it! Yay!" Ugh. Don't they have any consideration for our sleep deprived dad? I swear, those two don't see any beyond what they want to see.

I continued to scrub the walls to get the gunk off when my mom started to speak.

"Caia, please calm down, don't get yourself tired and stressed out before the reapings. It's hard enough without the added stress on your body and mind."

"Mom," I started explaining. "This kitchen was nice and clean before those two ransacked it. Look at this mess," I told her as I waved my free arm around the area. "It's a disaster! Someone needs to clean this."

This mess needed to be clean up. Not only because mom and dad worked too hard with their jobs to do something as time consuming as this and needed to rest up a bit, but because there shouldn't be a dirty kitchen in the first place. Let alone a kitchen as dirty as this. If I left it up to the twins, they'd just leave everything the way it is now. I just couldn't allow that.

"Caia, just please relax."

"I can't relax mom, didn't you just hear what I said? This place looks like a land mine exploded and covered the place with gruel. This kitchen was clean last night, and it'll be clean in a little while. Just you wait."

"Sweety," My mom sighed. "Please calm down, just relax for a couple hours or so, at least until the reapings are over. I know that the perfectionist won't rest until the job's done, but for the love of God, calm down before you have a heart attack."

I was no getting frustrated, couldn't she see what was right in front of her? I was having a god damn heart attack right now!

"You don't understand mom-" I started, but was interrupted by my mom.

"Caia, you're going to put down that cloth, sit down, eat your breakfast, then get ready for the reapings before relaxing for another little while. Now I'm going to clean this up while you get your heart rate down."

I dropped the cloth, knowing that I was on the losing side of the battle. But I continued to look at the mess and thought about how much work it'd be to clean it up and get it back to perfection. This house wasn't the greatest house ever, but it was still our house, and it deserved to look it's best.

This mess looked like it'd take a single person at least a couple hours to clean.

"But mom-"

"No buts. Now go into the living room, read a book, and relax, and don't even think about this mess."

Easier said then done, I thought. But I turned around and walked into the living room anyway, the thought of the mess never leaving my mind.

**Kendrick Reeves's POV **

"Can I tell you something?" I asked Mackenzie, or better known as just Mac.

"Sure," She told me. "You can tell me whatever you want, your secret's safe with me."

"What makes you think that it's a secret?" I chuckled, but also wondered what made her think that I was going to tell her a secret, which actually, it kind of was.

"You usually don't ask if you can say something, you just say it," Mac explained. "So if you're asking me if you can say something, it's not hard to think that it's a secret."

Typical Mac, she knows me better then just about anyone. While I had a few friends, she was my closest friend, and she the one always noticing these kinds of things about me.

"Right." I simply said before exhaling a little. Well, this is it, I'm going to tell someone, it won't be a secret for much longer, and I really wanted her opinion anyway. "So what would you think if I said that I was volunteering this year?"

Mac turned to me before smiling.

"I'd say your crazy," She replied with chuckling a little. "Because one, it's the Hunger Games, and second, it's a quarter quell with unknown twists. Third, while you are big and strong for someone from District Three, you aren't someone from a career district. Those are my three main reasons, you want me to go onto four five six seven and beyond?"

"I'm good for now." I told her, thinking about what she had just told me. Yes I was big for someone from Three, probably due to my dad's African-American descendants and the fact that I had done more then tinker with machines for the last several years. Since I was ten I had trained myself for the games using spare machine parts for weapons and targets. And while I wasn't strong like the careers, I was more then a match for anyone in the outer districts, except maybe the tributes from Seven and Eleven.

As for the games, they were always a danger, but I had taken the steps to prepare myself for them. Starvation training, didn't need that much training living in this poverty ridden neighborhood I called home. Strength training, lifting weights and training with make weapons, check for strength and weapon use. Planning, not as much since the arena was unpredictable as well as the tributes that were going to be in it, but I'd hopefully learn about them in the Capital.

As far as the Capital liking me, that might take some work, but I was at a good start. I didn't look like a complete bum right now, and with my confidence and assertiveness, I might win over a couple of sponsors. "You think that the Capital'll like me?" I asked, wondering about the whole sponsor part of the plan. Sponsors were a big part of the game.

"Let's see," Mac said as she examined me quickly. "Lean build, tall, darkish skin that's more on the white side, clean black hair. Sure, if they manage to notice you out of twenty three other tributes."

"Oh they will," I told her, knowing that they were going to notice me. "Because I really am volunteering."

Mac stopped dead in her tracks before looking back at me with a serious look of, well, seriousness, and worry.

"Kendrick." She said with shock. "You can't be serious." I expected this from her, after all, in this district, nobody volunteers unless they have a death wish.

"I am serious," I told her with a no nonsense tone. "I've never been more serious in my life." Before Mac could say anything, I continued on. "Mac, I've been known to disappear of the face of Panem for hours on end. One time I was gone for three days, do you know where I was during that time?" Before she could answer, I answered for her. "Training for the games, how do you think I became as strong as I am now?"

"Family genes." She answered. "Moving machines. Moving machine parts."

"Actually, those might of helped." Now that I thought about it, moving all those mechanical parts could of greatly aided me in making me strong. Not to mention my family genes on my father's side. He was big and strong, and I looked just like him. While he did look like he could easily kick my ass, he was more of the diplomat between my mom and I.

"But why volunteer for the games?" Mac worryingly asked with a touch of wonder. "It's suicide."

"Because-" I started, but stopped when the force of an overloaded air compressor hit the back of my body, causing me to stumble forward before I heard a large crash behind me.

"What the fuck are you doing standing in the middle of the road?" I heard a young but rough and hard voice shout behind me. "Don't you think that people might be passing by in a hurry!"

I quickly turned around and said

"I'm sorry." To a peacekeeper that looked like he hadn't yet hit twenty.

"Damn right your sorry." The young peacekeeper that I didn't recognize snarled. "Now move out of the way before I take that head of yours and shove it so far up that bitch's ass that you'll be getting skull fucked every time that slut sucks someone's-"

That peacekeeper never got to finish his abuse. I slammed a fist right into his face and sent him a step back before I hit him again, and again. Nobody talks to Mac like that. In fact, nobody talks to anyone that way.

I threw another fist to his face, only for my to feel sudden pain in my right elbow and shoulder before I felt my back painfully hit the ground. My right arm getting more pain as each second passed. I tried to get away, but I was pinned to the ground as the peacekeeper held me in a pin that I recognized from previous Hunger Games. That move was known to break elbows!

I tried to worm my way out of it, but his legs were keeping both my chest and my face on the ground, and both my arms were useless! "Hit me why don't you." The peacekeeper snarled at me in anger as I felt agony in my right elbow. "Fucking attack me why don't you!" He shouted as I shouted. "I outo break that arm of yours!" Then quietly said. "But I'm not going to. I'm going to have mercy on you."

Oh thank God! Peacekeepers have mercy! Maybe it was because it was reaping day and they didn't want any of the Capital folks seeing live executions, but neither the less, I was getting mercy.

My mood quickly feel when I heard a sudden crunch and felt blinding pain in my right index finger. I screamed out in pain, before feeling another wave of pain hit me in my right middle finger. "How many times did you hit me?" The peacekeeper asked coarsely. "Oh right, three times with an attempted fourth."

"Have mercy!" I shouted, knowing what he was about to do next. "Have mercAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

**Caia Wicken's POV **

Crisis, averted.

I sighed with relief as I looked at the now clean kitchen that had been disaster area just over an hour ago. I don't know how mom managed to get it done so fast, and without my help, but she managed to do it as I dressed into my reaping outfit, simple yet pretty blue dress.

She also told me to read something and not come down until I had finished reading it, so I choose a book on surviving in a disaster area for the first seventy two hours. It was an ancient book that was older then Panem itself, but it still had useful information that would be used if needed.

Its not only nice to have in case something unexpected does happen to this district, but also if I somehow get reaped for the games. Too many people in the arena have died due to not knowing basic survival techniques that could of saved their lives.

I know that my odds are slim, but still possible because of the tesserae I take out. Not much, but enough that mom and dad don't have to work themselves to death trying to support us. I have a job stamping boxes that get transported to the Capital, and while it doesn't pay well, it helps, and it isn't dangerous, unlike some of the other jobs in the factories.

Also, it's the only job that they'd let me have, they didn't like that I was little and it annoyed them. Well there were some things that you shouldn't skip corners on, and I couldn't help but fix those things, no matter how small they were. Everything had to be just right.

And that's how I got from assembly line worker to stamper.

"Caia." I heard my mom say to me as I finished off my breakfast.

"Yes mom?' I asked.

"I know that you don't want to be near your brother and sister when we're heading to the square, so why don't you go ahead of us." She suggested, which I thought was a great idea. Even though I loved my younger siblings, they drove me crazy, just like they did nearly an hour ago.

"Thanks mom," I told her, happy for the chance to get away from the twins. "I need to get down to the square soon anyway."

"But it's still forty minutes until the reapings begin." My mom explained in wonder.

"It takes time to get down to the square, sign in your name behind every other kid in the district, then find your way to your section." I explained to her. "Plus, you'd never know if something might pop up on the way there."

"True enough." My mom agreed. "Just stay safe."

"Will do." I answered before I ran out the door and made my way to the square.

***Little time skip* **

I had made it to the square in time to sign my name in before making my way to my age section. But when I saw that instead of an empty space that would be filled in with kids of eligible reaping age, there were black steel cages with numbers marked on them.

What were those cages for?

I asked a Capital attendant and she replied "It's to keep kids from running away."

Well that makes sense, I mean, it'd be easier for the peacekeepers to grab a kid in a cage then it would be for them to chase someone through the district.

I walked over to the seventeen year old cage before waiting for other kids to arrive.

Some time passed before everyone in the district was in the square. At which time, our escort came up on stage and began to speak to us through a microphone.

"Happy Hunger Games," She cheerfully said to us, her voice amplified by the microphone she was behind. "And maybe the odds be ever in your favor. More so this year especially."

Wait? This year especially? What did she mean by that? Was she referring to the quarter quell twist this year? "This year, thanks to the reading of the card and the rising population of Panem, things are going to be a little different this year, for example, the cages."

So I had noticed. "Now, as another one of the changes, I'm going to call out an age group instead of an individual." Our escort explained. "So may the odds be ever in your favor."

Wait. She was going to call an age group? Was this part of the quell twist? It had to be, what else could it be? "Eighteen." Well, at least I'm not going into the games. Good luck to the eighteen year olds though.

Suddenly, the sound of an explosion occurred in the cage in front of me. I looked to that cage, the eighteen year old cage, to see a big cloud of dust, dirt, body parts, and blood, fly into the air before landing back on the ground with a sound that was a mixture of sick splatter and rain. People screamed out in terror.

What the hell? What the hell! That wasn't supposed to happen! Those eighteen year olds weren't supposed to be killed! They were supposed to be reaped! The Hunger Games were cruel, but they weren't used this way! Why was this happening? "Any volunteers?" Our escort asked. "Volunteer now and you can save another age group."

Nobody said anything, too shocked from the sudden deaths I'm guessing. Not that I blame them. I was too shocked to even say or do anything. "Sixteen!" Our escort announced, before an explosion behind me occurred. I didn't need to look behind me to know what had happened.

This was bad. More people were dying, and from what I heard from the escort, someone would need to volunteer in order for them to stop.

This needed to stop, the games were supposed to be used for a purpose, a real purpose, and that wasn't to have needless slaughters.

"I volunteer!" I shouted, just wanting all the deaths in the square to stop. "I volunteer!"

A peacekeeper unlocked the cage before he guided me up the stage until I was next to the escort.

"And what's your name?" She asked.

"Caia Wicken." I answered.

"Caia Wicken." Our escort announced to the remanding members of the crown that had no eighteen year olds or sixteen year olds anymore. "Our first volunteer to save everyone and go into the Hunger Games!"

It was only after I heard her speech that I thought of what I had just done. I had saved more kids from being killed, but at the same time, I had put myself in danger. I was going into the arena. That impulsive action had put me somewhere I didn't want to ever end up in.

Fuck.

**Kendrick Reeves's POV **

Ever since Mac told me about the explosive warning on that crate that peacekeeper was carrying, I wondered what it was for. Now I knew exactly what it was for. That crate contained either bombs or land mines.

The young peacekeeper said that what was in the crate was Capital business. Fuck no it wasn't Capital business, it was District Three business, look at what was happening because of those explosives!

Shocked erupted from all the district citizens when those kids got killed, and I was no exception.

At least someone had the guts to volunteer to make the killings stop, now all I needed to do was volunteer and this would be all over.

Our escort started to walk over to the boys reaping bowl before I shouted.

"I volunteer! I volunteer!"

Still, she kept on walking to the reaping bowl, even though I was shouting my head off. She was going to pick a number no matter what.

"Fourteen." She announced before an explosion occurred behind me.

Damn. Those kids didn't deserve to die like that. They didn't deserve to die at all. "Now who said that they were volunteering?" The Capital women asked. So she had hear me, she just choose to ignore me.

"I did!" I shouted, making sure that everyone could hear me, just in case she decided to ignore me again. "I'm volunteering as tribute!"

A peacekeeper unlocked the cage door before he escorted me to the stage.

"And what's your name?" The escort asked.

"Fuck you." I answered. All the Capital women did was laugh.

I couldn't hit her like I did with that young peacekeeper, even though I wanted to, but I managed to control myself. If I did hit her, I'd probably get something worse then three broken fingers.

"Well fuck you, Caia, shake hands you two."

I turned to my district partner, and extended my left hand towards her since my right hand had three fingers in impossible positions and they hurt like hell. But I wasn't going to show that I was hurt by something like this, nobody wanted to see a wimp, and maybe the Capital would either give me sympathy, or like that I wasn't a whiner and could handle pain. They might see me as a fighter, and that's got to be worth something.

I looked down at my short district partner as she shook my hand. She had choppy black hair that ran slightly past her shoulders, green eyes, and a healthy looking body that told me that she wasn't part of the poor class like I was.

Caia Wicken. I've hardly seen her, but I've heard a little about her. I only know that she's considered smart and wants everything to be perfect. Too perfect for lots of people, and she can be frustrating to deal with.

She may not be liked by many, but I respect her for stepping up when everyone else didn't.

**A/N: Let's see here... I don't want to do the rest of the reapings, it's getting slightly harder for me to make good chapters, quality going down... Sounds like writer depression. Damn. **

**Ok guys, so here's what I'm going to do: I'm going to take a short Hiatus that's going to last at least a week and two weeks at most before I start writing again. Hopefully then the quality will go up.**

**Sorry for the quality that I've given to this chapter and the other chapters that weren't so good. **

**Anyway, let's hope that the next chapter is better.**


	7. District 5

**District Five**

**Alexa 'Fortune' Langer's POV**

Slumping against the tree that was a mere two feet away from the electrical charged chain link fence that guarded the district from wild animals and the other dangers in the wilderness beyond, I raised the busted up light bulb to my mouth with my left hand while igniting my lighter with my left hand.

I watched the wheel of the lighter produce a spark before it transformed into a small pillar of fire before I put the flame under the, unbusted, bottom of the light bulb that held the white crystals that made my life bearable.

The flame touched the blackened bottom of the bulb and started to heat up the substances inside for a few seconds before it started to produce thin curls of smoke.

As soon as it started to smoke, I inhale while my mouth was around the screw cap of the bulb, letting the taste of smoke, heated glass, and the acidic chemicals invade my mouth as I sucked the vapors into my lungs. I took a deep breath, getting as much of the product into my system as possible, before I pushed my lighter away from the bulb and extinguished the flame by releasing the lever that made the flame continuous and pulled the bulb away from my mouth as I held the smoke in my lungs for a few second.

When I wasn't able to hold it in any longer, I exhaled the smoke from my lungs and watched as the streams of thick grey substances sail into the air before thinning out and disappearing. Just like how most of my family disappeared.

They were like the narcotics I was smoking, they had died in a fire before being buried someplace dark. The remains of them were charred black and broken, but they were still recognizable. Just like the drugs I was smoking.

The house that I was living in now was nothing more then a shed I had built, but it kept me protected from the weather and the bugs. It was a roof over my head made with scraps of tin and whatever else I could find around the district.

I built the poor excuse of house until it looked like a box made from the scraps of the district. It took me nearly a week to build, another three to make it sturdy enough to withstand the elements.

It was poorly insolated, so it got cold in the winter and hot in the summer, and it was far from perfect, always leaking in one place or another. It's single window had been smashed by bricks thrown at it, usually by the little kids hired by the gamblers I gain my winnings from, or by concerned mothers who don't want me around to influence their kids to become like me.

I never was one to let people see me take narcotics, but with kids, they always seem to find things out, or wonder into the wrong place at the wrong time. And with the kids my age, they just seem to know everything from someone spreading rumors, or by them spreading news around to their friends until the word is around the entire district. It seemed that the only things that everyone really knew about was the bad that everyone did, because wildfire spreads faster then grass.

Who said that? I tried to remember, but my head was already starting to feel fuzzy and light because of the crystallized drugs. It made it harder to think, but it wasn't enough that I couldn't forget some of the things that I wanted to forget. It wasn't enough that I wasn't thinking about anything besides my immediate thoughts.

I knew that it was starting to take effect though, the drug made me feel less tired and I could feel my heart rate increase slightly, but I hadn't smoked enough to get the pleasure that came with it. I needed that pleasure, because without it, my life was nothing but misery, past, present, and most likely future.

I lifted the light bulb up again and spun the wheel of the lighter and created a small flame again. I lifted up the two items so that they went together and the flame licked the bottom of the glass bulb and cracked the drug, producing more smoke for me to inhale.

I placed the metal screw cap in my mouth again and breathed in deeply, letting the strong taste of smoke and chemicals burn my mouth and throat as it passed down into my lungs.

I breathed in until I couldn't hold anymore in, let it settle in my body, before blowing it out.

I looked past the electric chain link fence that was topped with razor wire and thought of the three boys that came down here to harass me. To taunt me for whatever reason they felt, be it my bloodshot eyes when I was high, my red and cracked lips, my unclean hair, just anything that they could see.

It's reaping day today, and I hadn't seen them for nearly four days, I missed them, they were good company, kept me busy thinking about other things rather then the death of nearly everyone in my family.

It was funny though, one of them seemed to like me. He didn't show it directly, and he didn't even say it directly, but I could tell that he liked me. The way he looked at me, the things he said when his friends weren't around, even if they did sound harsh, they were still nicer then what he'd say when his friends were around, and I could tell that he didn't know how to really complement someone.

Reading people, that was what my father had trained me to do, look at their facial expressions, look at the way they say things, the way they move, look for the small things that people do. He also thought me how to strategize, how to plan. That was how I was able to get my money, how I was able to forget.

**Jamie Paradis's POV**

"I didn't think that it was that powerful..." Elizabeth said with some shame in her voice.

"It's all right." I told her as I shook my head to relive myself of some of my headache. It didn't work.

"Well, either way, I got you out of that hell hole you call home." She boasted with a smile.

"Yeah." I said with smile while rubbing my head, thanking her for getting away from my dad, even if her method was strange and somewhat brutal.

I looked at her taster and thought of how it had knocked me out in nearly ten seconds. It was modified for lower voltage of course, since her father, a peacekeeper, knew that she kept on stealing it from him.

I remember Elizabeth's mother giving her father a hard time due to how Elizabeth as able to steal the taster from under his nose, only for her to be surprised by her husband. It turned out that he knew that Elizabeth was stealing it, and just let her think that she was taking it without his knowledge. He lowered the electric current in the weapon that she stole and hid his real taster, a high powered one that would have grown men on the ground crying just by being touched by it.

Though Elizabeth never really used it for real, she only used it for threats and bluffs. This was actually the first time she even used it on a person, so she must of been surprised when I fell to the ground just by getting two seconds of it.

The look on her face, it was one of surprise, but I knew that was a good thing, it showed that she never used it for real.

"Can't believe that guy," Elizabeth said, placing the taster behind her belt and covered it up with her blue and white checkered blouse. "It's reaping day, and he still wants you to train until you drop from exhaustion."

My dad, that's who she was still talking about. My dad, ever since his brother, my uncle Wire, won his Hunger Game at the age of fifteen, he's wanted at least one of his kids to win the Hunger Games, and since I'm the only child still with him, it was apparently up to me win in his name.

I always skip his lessons though, I care nothing about winning the games. Besides, I don't like listening to that man anyway, all he does is yell at me and hit me when I don't do good enough.

I shrugged my shoulders to show my friend that this whole thing didn't matter to me, who cares whether my dad wants me to train, or that he hits me, or that I do anything? It's not like any of this is going to make a difference in the long run. I wasn't going into the games, and nothing he says will make me. He can disown me after I turn nineteen because I didn't volunteer for the games, or I didn't get picked, I don't care. In fact, it might be better that way, cause then I'd be able to live my my mom and half sister again.

Whatever, I was stuck with dad until I turn nineteen, maybe. Either way, it wasn't so bad since we were financially well off due to dad being a skilled generator technician. "Anyway, there's people that want to meet you again." I heard my friend say as she grabbed my by the hands and lifted me off the bed that I was sitting on before pulling me towards the door. I didn't stop her, I let her bring me where ever she was bringing me without a fight.

Elizabeth let go of one of my hands before opening the door in front of me, reveling the scene in front of me, which consisted of three people. My step father, or something like that. My mom, and my half sister, who I was really happy to see.

"Jamie!" My thirteen year old half sister happily shouts before she runs up to me and wraps her arms around me, which I then did the same to her.

I then looked up to my mom and her husband and thought of how he was the reason that Quinn and I look so different from each other. Quinn had blond hair and blue eyes while also being a tiny little thing with a small frame, while I was nearly six feet tall and was thin, but lean with dark chocolate hair and blue eyed.

Her features were because of our mom and her real father, both were blond haired and blue eyed, and surprisingly, mom was taller then her husband, but only a little, and they were both small framed. Dad on the other hand was a monstrous six foot six and was muscular with dark chocolate hair and brown eyed.

It also struck me how my dad, Cable, and Quinn's dad, Chain, were opposites not only in looks, but personality. Dad was violent, impulsive, obsessive, while Chain was kind, a little slackly, and easy going. Not only that, but he was closer to mom's age then dad is. "You come here to move in with us?" My sister asked me.

I shook my head. I wish I could, but I can't, not until next year, not until I'm eighteen, then I can do whatever I want. But until then, I'm dad's.

"Hello Jamie. Elizabeth." My mom said happily.

I looked at her and said.

"Hello mom. Chain."

"Mr and Mrs Griffin." Elizabeth said. "Quinn."

***two hours later***

"I'm scared," Quinn told us as we walked down to the square for the reapings, following the mass of people heading in the same direction we were. "What if I get picked?"

"You won't get picked," My cousin, Kaylee, assured her, confidently walking with us like she had no fear of the reapings. The truth was, she wasn't scared, unlike the rest of us. Her dad, my uncle Wire, the victor, had trained her just in case she did get picked, but it back fired on him because unlike most of the kids in this district, Kaylee wants to volunteer. Confidence practically radiated off of her when we went to the reapings instead of showing fear. "And even if you do get picked, you won't have to worry, because I'd volunteer for you." She said before throwing an arm around Quinn's shoulder.

Quinn smiled widely before saying gratefully. "Thanks."

"Not a problem," Kaylee told her. "As family, we take care of each other, not like what Cable and Wire do to each other." As grandfather Spark once said to us when he was still alive, those two could never get along, even when they were infants, it was like competitiveness towards each other was in their blood. One always had to up the other.

"Friends also take care of each other," Elizabeth added. "I'll take care of you like I take care of Jamie, who I've gotten out of more jams then I care to remember."

Well, she has gotten me out of more jams then I'd like to admit, but hey, I've done the same for her, and like they say, friends stick together.

As we walked to the sign in tables, I heard a girl crying to my left. I looked over to see a little girl that looked around Quinn's age, maybe a little younger, crying her eyes out while another girl, her older sister from the looks of it, crouching down in front of her.

"I don't want to sign in," The little sister cried. "I don't want to put my name in for the reapings, I don't want to go into the arena."

"You're not going into the arena," The older sister told her, hugging her. "Your just putting your name in, there's no guarantee that your name'll get picked."

"But I still have a chance," the little girl cried. "It's a quarter quell. I don't want to die."

"Damn these games," I heard Elizabeth growl. I looked over to her and saw that her teeth were clenched together tightly and her hands had turned into fists. "Nothing I ever do is good enough, this district is too scared of it's own shadow to take on the Capital. Don't they want these games to end? Don't they want this suffering to end? Next year, or even this year, I want to volunteer so I can wreck havoc on the Capital."

This was Elizabeth the rebel talking. Though her rallies were virtually useless, they were still punishable by at least forty lashes to the back with a whip. The only reason she's gotten away with it is because the other peacekeepers keep the head peacekeeper from knowing about her rebellious acts, despite how useless they are, in respect for her father.

I worry about Elizabeth. She's brave all the time, not like me who's only brave by sneaking away from my dad, but that bravery's going to get her killed one day. I don't care a lot about a lot of things, but Elizabeth is one of the things I care a lot about.

I reached over to her with my left hand and gently touched her right hand. I saw her features lighten up a little before she loosened the tension in her teeth and hands before she let her fingers slip through mine.

I'm glad she's calm now, it's not a good idea to get rebel Elizabeth talking around the square on reaping day. Besides, we're the only ones to blame for these games. We wanted change, and we got change, we got our asses kicked by the Capital before they introduced the Hunger Games for our rebellion. The Capital was right to give us this punishment, because if they didn't, all we'd do was rebel again. It was to keep us in check, and it worked.

"When are you going to ask her out?" I heard Quinn ask. I looked to her, to see that she was looking at Elizabeth and I.

I looked to Elizabeth, before we both started laughing.

"He's never going to do that." Elizabeth told her.

"Friends is all." I quickly explained to her before letting my hand slip from Elizabeth's grip, not that she had calmed down.

I was never going to ask Elizabeth out, we were friends through and through, and that's all we'll ever be. I wasn't going to ruin out friendship due to relationship complications.

"Coward." Kaylee fake coughed.

I shrugged. I didn't care what she thought, it was the truth, and nothing was going to change that.

"Well you two'd make a good couple." Quinn told us as Wire dragged her to the sign in booth.

I sighed before turning to my best friend and looking her right in the eyes.

"Don't volunteer." I simply told her before turning around and walking to sign in for the reapings.

I noticed something different about the square though, black cages with thick, clear Plexiglass covering all sides, plus top and bottom. What the hell were they for?

**Alexa 'Fortune' Langer's POV**

I'm not going to get picked, I'm sure of it. I don't know if it's the drugs talking or just me knowing that I wasn't going to get picked once again, but who cares? I'm not going to get picked! I can feel it!

I walked over to the sign in table, and waited for the Capital attendent to sign me in.

"Name." She said.

"Alexa Langer." I told her, hearing the mutters of other kids behind me, no doubt talking about me.

"Age."

"Sixteen."

"Tesserae."

"None."

"Get to your cage then." She said in a monotone voice. She didn't care about us, or what we had to say, all she wanted was for the reapings to be over with so she could get out of our district and get back to the Capital.

I did as I was told and made my way to one of the black cages covered with hard plastic walls labeled: 16. I guessed that it was supposed to be our age group since the numbers ranged from twelve to eighteen.

Along the way I saw people glaring at me, both kids and adults. Though they looked like they hated me, I knew that they disliked me rather then hated me, though some of them did hate me.

"That's what happens when you do drugs," I heard one guy say. "You end up like her, a homeless, depressed, nobody who only cheats to live."

I didn't say anything to him, and why should I? Nothing I say's going to change the way they think.

I found the girl's sixteen year old cage and went inside of it. Girls glared at me like I was the worst thing inside this cage. Couldn't I go anywhere without being shunned? No? Okay, whatever.

"Welcome everyone to the tenth quarter quell and may the odds be ever in your favor!" Our escort, Luna Marie announced through the microphone in front of her.

Was it just me, or did she sound happy? What was with the edges of her mouth twitching ever so slightly? I was a fair ways away from her and other kids were blocking my view, but were her eyes...lighting up? "This year is a very special year," She continued with a voice that had more joy in it then it should have.

Even though this was Luna Marie, borderline psychopath, she shouldn't of been this happy for a reaping. "Because of the reading of the card and the dramatic sky rocket in Panem's population, the Capital's made some," Luna gave a little laugh. "Breathtaking changes."

She shouldn't be this joyous. Unless... "Now for the drawings!"

Oh no.

The narcotics made me more aware of my surroundings, made me more alert, that plus my natural observation skills of people made me realize that this was bad. Really bad.

Seven slips of paper in the glass bowls. Reinforced hard plastic walls on cages. Borderline psychopath acting as gleeful as seeing the murders on T.V. "Ladies first."

She reached into the glass bowl, grabbed a piece of paper, unfolded it, then read out. "Fifteen."

I turned to look at the cage behind me, unlike the other girls in the cage with me, who just stood around with confusion. I bet the majority of them didn't see that silver cylinders with black skull and cross bones were falling from the roof of the fifteen year old cage, into the cage with the kids inside.

Suddenly, all the can started to pour out orange smoke.

The girls inside the fifteen year old cages were startled by it, but then rashes quickly appeared on their skin, followed by huge blisters, then burns, their skin started to turn red and peel from their bodies. Their faces seemed to melt into dried pieces of meat and fall off in strips as they screamed in pain, but no sound was heard outside the cage. They pounded on the hard plastic walls, but couldn't get out.

The fact that I was high and a little out of my mind made it both easier and harder due to how I saw things. I saw it with better eyes, I could imagine their screams vividly, I was more aware of the surroundings, but at the same time, I was calmer, so in a way, it evened out.

My thoughts were different though, because all I could think of was how cruel this was. As if the Hunger Games alone weren't bad enough, as if all the death around us wasn't bad enough, they had to do this, kill more of us then they needed to.

It was just another way for us to die, to show how weak we were compared to the Capital. If was shown in full by Luna's reaction to their death. "Any volunteers?" Luna asked. Absolutely no sympathy was in her voice. She was as heartless as they came.

I waited a couple seconds to see if anyone would volunteer, and sure enough, someone did volunteer, I heard the girls around me muttering in surprise as they talked about the rebel girl in our district.

The rebel girl, the one who tries to helplessly recruit people for the cause. She was volunteering? What was she planning?

I turned to see if that was true, and it turns out it was, out of the seventeen year old cage in front of me, I saw her being escorted by a peacekeeper before she got up on stage. "Name." Luna asked.

"Elizabeth-" The girl started.

"King." The head peacekeeper finished. "Funny to be meeting you here." He didn't sound surprised or anything, had he expected her to get up and volunteer? He was smiling. What did that mean?

"How is it funny?" Elizabeth asked, not scared in the least that she was going into the Hunger Games.

"I heard about your little plan girl," The head peacekeeper told her, his right hand shifting to his hip. "You're planning on going to the Capital and created mass destruction. Unfortunately for you, your going going to get that far."

Then before anyone could react, he whipped out his handgun and shot the rebel girl in the stomach three times in rapid succession before Elizabeth fell to the floor screaming, crimson red running out of the six holes in her body.

The sounds of the gunshots scared me, I hated that sound. "You may be a peacekeeper's daughter, but your subjected to the rules like the rest of us." The head peacekeeper explained to her, not taking his eyes off her the entire time while Luna looked at the injured girl like a child looked at a healthy puppy. Big smiles all around. "This is what we do to rebel wannabes in this district!" He shouted before another thundering crack rang through the speakers inside this cage, scaring me once again.

Red liquid exploded from the rebel girl's skull before her body turned lifeless and slumped fully to the metal stage as blood pooled around her body. "So any volunteers?" The head peacekeeper shouted. "No?" He said, not giving anybody time to even say anything. "Fine, your funeral."

Almost immediately, Luna picked out another piece of paper from the reaping bowl and read out.

"Eighteen."

Just like with the fifteen year olds, silver canisters fell from the roof of the cage before releasing thick orange smog, causing the kids inside to wail in agony before their skin grew huge blisters before their skin started to crack and peel and burn. It wasn't long before they all fell down and died. Their eyes remained open and pleaded for help. "Any volunteers?" Luna asked, in the same joyous voice that she had since this whole thing started. She didn't seem to want anyone to volunteer.

"I volunteer!" I shouted, not wanting anymore death, but most of all, not wanting anymore gunshots to ring out in the air. At least if they don't like me, I can die and not hear the bullet hitting me.

The girls all turned to me and gasped.

I didn't need to look very hard to see that they didn't expect poor, drug addict, Alexia Langer to volunteer.

**Jamie Paradis's POV**

A girl in a blue hoodie and matching jeans had volunteered and was being escorted up to the stage. Everyone around me was talking to each other about that girl. She was either famous or they were just surprised that someone was volunteering. I guessed that later, but I didn't listen in to their conversations.

The only thing that I could concentrate on was the fact that my cousin had been killed by the Capital by the very chemicals that we manufacture, and that my best friend had been killed by the head peacekeeper. Something that I had always feared.

I couldn't stop thinking that only minutes ago we were talking to each other, talking about the reapings and having fun with each other. But now, half of that group was dead. I felt like crying, but I didn't want to, I couldn't cry in front of everyone, not now, not before I was planning something important.

"Name." Luna asked, as joyous as ever from seeing all those deaths.

"Alexa Langer." The girl answered.

Luna then immediately went over to the boy's reaping bowl before picking out a piece of paper.

"Fourteen." She called out, before thick streams of orange poison killed the poor fourteen year olds behind me. The fourteen year olds then had their skin blister and burn before they fell down dead. "Any volunteers?" Luna asked, not caring that another age group had just been chemicaled to death.

"I volunteer." I announced. I then heard the kids around me gasp in surprise before turning towards me.

"He talks willingly." One kid said.

"I know." Another told him with surprise in his voice.

I didn't care what they said or thought about me, the only thing I cared about right now was about Elizabeth, and Kaye.

A peacekeeper unlocked the cage door before ripping me out of the mass of kids before roughly pushing me towards the stage. He continued to push me until I was in front of the head peacekeeper, and right above my best friend's body.

I looked down at my Elizabeth's body, and saw where she had been shot, three times in the stomach and once in the face. Her blouse had one large spot of red where her stomach was along with little splatters everywhere else. As for her head, the bullet had passed straight through her nose, so that, plus the center of her lower jaw, had turned into a bloody hole.

I felt my stomach churn from looking at what happened to my friend.

"I'm going to ask you the same question I asked that girl," I heard our head peacekeeper say.

I took my gaze away from my deceased friend and looked at the head peacekeeper. "Are you going to act like a rebel, or are you going to play the game like everyone else?"

"Play." I told him simply and truthfully.

I was going to win the games. I was going to win it for both Elizabeth and Kaye. They wanted to go into the games, but they died before they could. I was going to win, in their honor.

"Good man." The head peacekeeper told me as he smiled. "Now shake hands with your partner."

I walked over to my district partner, the girl in the blue hoodie, and extended my hand before she took a hold of it.

"Name?" Luna asked.

"Jamie Paradis." I told her as I looked into my district partner's blood shot, icy blue eyes.

Had she been crying? I hope not, because if she started again, I might not be able to hold my feelings in.

**A/N: Eight days to make a chapter. That's actually a good thing to me, considering that I've had a lot of stuff to do that doesn't limit to overtime night shifts at my new job, helping my brother move back home, several appointments and home renovations.**

**Anyway, to all of you, I don't care anymore, you can send in as many tributes as you want, it doesn't seem that a lot of different people are submitting to this story, so yeah, help yourselves to the ones that are free. Or you could get some friends to submit, or something. As always, tribute sheet is in my profile and PM only.**

**I'm going to be using the D12 male for another one of my characters, so yeah, that spot's mine. **

**I hope that the hiatus made a difference.**

**Oh yes, two more things, the ending was a bit rushed because I wanted to get it done and my computer crashed, so it was better before, but I got impatient. And the D2 girl is now unreserved. (Now watch as a million people try to get her spot and all the others spots are left wide open XD)**


	8. District 12

**District Twelve**

**Daria "Dare" Nettle's POV**

This was amazing! The best feeling in the world! Ever!

I was free from this district and out in a civilization in the wild, and it was awesome! I was with tribes of people that did new and exciting things that I couldn't even think of, and not only that, but I was free to climb trees and swing from the branches that connected each of the giant earth plants together.

I could go swimming in the rivers or lakes, go hunting, learn the strange ways of the groups outside the district fences, I could do just about anything I wanted and never get bored with it. The way life should be in my opinion.

But that world was fading into darkness as the everything started to shake violently. Unknown voices were shouting a single word that I couldn't understand.

The world that I wanted to live in, the place that I had escaped District Twelve for, was being pulled into a black void as darkness overtook it, until there was nothing left.

"Dare." A familiar female voice said as I started to feel things around me. I started to feel warmth, the air around me, and the feeling of being awoken.

Darn, it was just a dream. A very good dream, but a dream neither the less.

I felt myself being shaken awake by my friend, Livi. I opened my eyes, only to see her blond hair and blue eyes looking slightly away from me, and nothing else, she was that close to me.

"Your mom wants you." She told me, continuing not to look at me.

I got up to a sitting position before I asked.

"What about my dad?" I really wanted to see my dad. It wasn't everyday that he got a day off from the mines, and I missed not seeing him, he'd usually get back home after everyone was asleep. I did try to stay awake so that I could see him, but mom kept on telling me to get to sleep. I didn't listen to her, but I somehow always managed to fall asleep before he got home, and by the time I woke up, he was asleep, and if he wasn't, he was out working the mines again. So when he did have days off, I tried to spend as much time with him as possible.

"He's asleep." Livi told me.

Figures, I muttered to myself. I wanted to spend some time with dad before I headed out for the reapings. Ah well, I'll let him sleep, he deserves it, the reapings don't begin for another couple hours or so from the looks of the sun.

It was past dawn and the clouds weren't bright orange, just their normal light grey. Of course, everything was a little bit black and grey because of the coal that was burned, or otherwise used, heavily across the district. It was reaping day, and the Capital folks didn't appreciate having black powder raining on them, so all production was stopped for today.

I stood up, stretched my arms, and looked around my environment and planned the quickest route off this roof. I found a quick route within seconds. Right in front of me was another house with an open window that was a little more then a food lower then the roof I was on, all I'd need to run, either get through the open window, or grab the ledge, followed by climbing down the drainpipe before dropping down to the ground. Easy.

"I'll see you inside." I told my friend before I started running for the window, hearing the click clank of the roofing tiles under my feet as I neared my objective.

"Wait!" Livi shouted at me, concern was heavy in her voice. "Dare, that's dangerous!"

Danger smanger, it wasn't that dangerous, I'd done things way more dangerous then this, and besides, what's so exciting about climbing down a ladder? I wanted to feel the thrill of doing things differently, I loved the rush that coursed through my body when I did something radical, I wanted the excitement, not the same old boring thing that everyone did.

I neared the edge of the roof before jumping off the ledge and sailed towards the open window, only to find that the window was further away then it appeared. I felt a rush alright, but it wasn't the good rush that I enjoyed, it was fear that was running through my body at the moment.

"Oh shit!" I shouted before hit the part of the wall below the window, sending a wave of pain across my face, before I felt myself falling again.

An instant later, I felt my back painfully slam onto the hard ground. "OOOWWWWW!"

**Zeal Skoda's POV**

"Ruthie!" I shouted wanting her to get over here as fast as possible. "Ruthie!" There was something wrong with this pinata, all it did was drip out red stuff and swing around slightly. "Ruthie!" I had basically broken it in half, but all it did was pour out red liquid and some other kind of squishy stuff that looked like huge soggy worms. "Ruthie!"

I then heard the metal door to my right open loudly. I think it hit the wall beside it because it rang loudly.

"I heard you the first time!" Ruthie's voice shouted over the crash of the door. "What's the problem?" Why was she so mad? Did she want to try and break it open as well?

"I broke the pinata open." I told her, not feeling the satisfaction of what breaking it open should of given me, still looking at the red liquid dripping on the metal floor, creating a pool of red syrup. I didn't feel good about it because there was something missing, something that every one of those things should hold, not this, red...stuff.

"Oh," Ruthie said, her voice kinder now. She must of thought that I was having a problem with it, or maybe I was taking too long. "Good job Zeal," She told me happily. "That thing was giving us a lot of problems before you took care of it."

I felt like smiling. Ruthie, Russell, Darwin, Keith, and Lucy had been having trouble breaking the pinata before I arrived, but I was stronger then they were, taller and stronger, so they asked me to help them get it open. It was hard, but I eventually got it open. It cracked and snapped and made strange noises, but I managed to get it split it open. But if they had known that all they were getting was red juice that tasted like copper, they wouldn't of tried so hard to open it.

"Thanks Ruthie." I said with pride. But then I remembered why I called her here, because of what was inside it. I felt myself get sad thinking about it. "But, all there was inside of it was this red funny tasting juice that goes drip drip drip and these red...squishy things that went splat and taste funny and nothing else. There's no candy in it or anything."

"I'm sorry Zeal," Ruthie told me. "I thought that because it was a tough thing to open, there'd be something good inside of it, sorry to disappoint you."

"It's all right." I sighed, dropping the red stained iron bar that I used to beat the hanging, half broken pinata open, to the ground, making a loud clanging sound to occur. "Not your fault that the thing didn't have anything inside of it."

"If it's any consolation," Ruthie said. "I heard that Darwin has some of that powdered bread that you wanted to try out."

I turned around to face Ruthie and smiled.

"Really?" I asked excitedly.

"Really." Ruthie told me, nodding her head up and down a couple of times.

"Oh boy." I excitedly said as I ran towards the door Ruthie was at.

Ruthie and I then went through a hallway that had several paths leading towards different things, mostly dead ends though. It would be easy to get lost in here if you didn't know the way, but we knew the way, so we didn't get lost.

We made our way to the main room. We didn't have many rooms, just six if you counted the main room we heavily used for just about everything inside our club house. Our base. Our stronghold. Or whatever else my friends liked to call it.

It was in the back ends of the seam, one of the places that people don't normally go to, so it was perfect to have secret meetings here and play around with stuff without anybody coming around telling us to stop. I didn't like it when people told me to stop having fun.

Ruthie opened a door to reveal the main room of our club house, a room with metal walls, an overhead light that didn't cast very much light, some dirty old couches, some chairs, a couple of tables, and junk that laid around everywhere.

"Zeal our man," Russell shouted out, laying on one of the couches with a bottle of dark orange liquid that he liked to call whiskey in his left hand. I don't know how my friends could stand drinking that stuff, or any kind of alcoholic stuff for that matter, that stuff tasted nasty. "How'd the pinata go? Did you get any candy?"

"No," I told them sadly. "All I got was some red sticky liquid from it."

"Sorry man," Russell told me, sliding his free hand through his hair. "I though there'd be some sweet stuff in there." You and everyone else, I thought.

"I know." I groaned. I was really looking forward to some candy.

"On the bright side," I heard Lucy say to my left. "We managed to snag these loafs of powdered bread from that baker when he was taking out the trash. I believe that Darwin still has some-" She stopped talking. Why?

I looked to where she was looking at with her wide eyes, to see that Darwin was eating a loaf of bread covered in white powder. Was he eating the bread that Ruthie had told me that he was going to give me? "Darwin!" Lucy her annoying, high pitch shout in surprise. I hated when she was surprised, or scared, or excited, because her voice always went to that high pitched sound that I didn't like.

"What?" Darwin asked as he ate the bread.

"Those were for Zeal you asshole." Ruthie roughly told me, walking up to him before she gave an open handed hit to the head. "He's the one that got rid of that annoying little fly while the rest of you fuck heads get stoned and drank spirits instead of doing your job."

I got rid of a fly? I don't remember getting rid of any flies. They got stoned, I wouldn't want to get stoned, getting rocks thrown at you hurt. Why'd they get stoned? Why'd they drink spirits while getting stoned? And wasn't the normal punishment for breaking the rules a whipping or death? Why'd they stone them? They were supposed to be doing a job? I then remembered that Russell, Darwin, and Lucy were the ones that were supposed to break open the pinata but couldn't, so they got me to do it.

"They couldn't get it open," I proudly told Ruthie. "But I got it open for them."

"I know." Ruthie told me. "And because of that, Darwin was supposed to a loaf of the powdered bread, but it seems that Darwin has ate half your loaf," Ruthie then turned towards Darwin. "Right, Darwin." She growled. She was mad at him, he stole share.

"I'll, uh," Darwin said, looking around, his eyes moving quickly left to right, like he was scared of something. Though I don't know why he'd be scared, it was only us around. "I'll uh."

"You'll what Darwin?" Ruthie asked angrily as she grabbed the half eaten loaf of powdered bread from his hands.

"I'll make it up to him," Darwin quickly said, moving away from Ruthie. "I'll get him something he likes."

"Like?" Ruthie asked, edging closer to him, glaring at him with angry eyes. It was kind of fun to watch Darwin try to get away from Ruthie. He was a guy and she was a girl, and Darwin was taller then her, but only by a little, but it was still funny to see him act so scared around Ruthie.

"I'll get him a, uh, a, uh-"

"Better answer quickly Darwin," Russell suggested. "Before you get another cuff to the head, but this time harder."

"I'll get him some of those hard candies," Darwin shouted out. "right after the reapings, I'll get him some hard candies."

"I like hard candies." I said. Especially the red ones, I hope Darwin gets me the red ones. Though the yellow ones were okay.

"Good." Ruthie said as she got off the couch Darwin was sitting on before throwing me the half eaten loaf of bread Darwin had been eating, which I caught and stared eating. "Reapings start in a little over an hour, get your shit together before we head out."

This powdered bread was soooo gooooddd!

**Daria "Dare" Nettle's POV**

"What took you so long?" My friend, Skene, asked me jokingly as we left my house. He had been waiting outside for me with Livi.

"I had to get into this stupid dress," I told them, rubbing my hands down the loosely fitting cream coloured blouse and frilly black skirt that my mother just insisted that I wear for this year's reaping. She had made me change out of the clothes that I had been wearing and insisted that I wear these clothes since I had out grown the clothes that I wore for last year's reapings. Though truthfully, I didn't mind changing into the clothes, it was just the part when my mom wanted me to stand still so that she could look at me in those clothes and see how good I looked in them. I didn't like to stand still for too long, so it was tough for me to stand and one spot and only turn around slightly so that she could get a better look at me. "Plus, I had to see my dad before I left." I added.

Dad may of been awake, but I only got to talk to him for only a few minutes before we had to head to the reapings, and since he had to get ready for it and my friends were waiting for me, I, regrettably, went outside to meet with them. Though there was nothing wrong with my friends, it's just that I wanted to spend some time with dad on his day off.

Maybe after the reapings if he wasn't too tired.

"Daddy's girl." Skene chuckled, earning him a light slap to the back from me. I wasn't a daddy's girl. Sure I spent a lot of time with him when he was off work, but that didn't make me a daddy's girl. "Ow." Skene playfully said. "That really hurt Dare, you know that I can't handle getting hit."

Livi and I gave a little laugh at that. Unlike Livi and myself, Skene was tall and strong, unlike us girls who were short and thin. I wasn't even up to his shoulders on the tips of my toes at five foot five. Livi wasn't much taller then I was. Not only that, but my male friend also looked more like an adult then the rest of us. How Skene got so strong was that he shoveled coal from the carts onto the Capital trains. It also got the perk of being able to sneak a handful of coal into his uniform pockets when people weren't looking, though almost everyone on the job did that.

"Shut up." I laughed as we headed for the square.

"So what's with the bandage?" Skene asked seriously.

"Oh this?" I asked as I pointed to the bandages wrapped around my nose. "I got it doing an amazing stunt gone wrong."

"She tried to jump from one house to another to get to the ground in a more flashy way." Livi told him. "She always chooses the more dramatic look then the safe way, those, her head got slammed into a wall when she couldn't make it to the open window she was planning on jumping to."

"And this is why my parents try so hard to make me stop hanging around you two," Skene told us, chuckling to himself. "They're afraid I'll end up like you to, especially you Dare."

I groaned as I thought of Skene's parents. They were pushy and strict, always wanting to push him in the direction they wanted him to go and not wanting him to hang out with us, his friends, simply because we wanted to do things that normal people found strange and a little dangerous. We did things for thrills and fun, like everyone does, except ours were more on the radical side then the safe side.

"You should tell your parents that you do what you do and they can't stop you from doing that." I told him.

"I try," He told me. "But they're always like, 'we just want the best for you.'" Just like my mom. She worries too much and should be less protective of me. Like earlier today, she made a big deal about my bloody nose when all it was was a jump gone wrong. It wasn't much, just a mistake on my part, I should of seen that the window was too far, but I didn't, and I paid the price.

"They're just worried that you'll kill yourself if you start acting like us," Livi told him as we approached the line up for signing in. "I mean, just look at what's happened to Dare, and what would happen to me if I wasn't more on the cautious side."

Unlike me, Livi often examined the situation and thought things through, instead of me. Also, I wasn't that smart to begin with, so I guess that's why I was the daring type rather then the safe type.

"Either way, I wouldn't give my two best friends up just because of some words my parents say to me." Skene told us, which made me feel glad to have him as a friend. Despite his intimidating appearance, he was a good hearted person who offered good company whenever he was around. "Anyway, I'll see you both after the reapings, hopefully, who knows what the quarter quell will have for us."

"I know," Livi told him with more then a little worry in her voice. "I wonder what those cages are for."

"Cages?" I asked before looking in the direction that Livi was looking in, to see that there were black steel cages were in the square where us, the teenagers, usually stood in our age groups before getting picked for slaughter.

"You don't think this has anything to do with the mysterious quarter quell do you?" Livi asked.

"Maybe the Capital is just sick of kids trying to run away after they're picked." Skene suggested. Maybe, there have been a rise of kids trying to run away when their names got picked, so maybe the Capital was sick of having the peacekeepers chase the kids before dragging them to the stage.

I couldn't think of anything better, so I guessed that that was the reason.

Livi and I said 'see you soon' to Skene as we lined up to sign in.

When Livi's turn was up, it was my turn to sign in.

"Name?" The Capital guy asked me, not even looking at me.

"Daria Nettle." I told her. Though I preferred to use Dare instead of Daria, I had to use it because I was born Daria and not Dare. Not that my real name was bad or anything, hell, it almost sounded like Dare.

"Age?"

"Seventeen."

""Tesserae?"

"My mom, Miriana Nettle. My dad, Vernece Nettle. And myself, Daria Nettle."

"Three tesseraes then." He mumbled before scratching the pen on his piece of paper. "You supplies will be delivered in approximately three days. Next!"

After he shooed me away, I made my way to the cage labeled: 17. The cages were marked twelve to eighteen, so I knew that it was supposed to be our age groups they were showing.

I went into the seventeen year old cage before meeting back up with Livi.

"I hope this ends soon," I told my friend as we were trapped between every other seventeen year old. "I don't like standing this still." Plus, I was scared. I didn't like closed spaces, and this was a closed space with no escape, and it made me nervous. Very nervous. It was worse then normal reapings due to this cage.

"Hold it in." Livi told me, like she did every year. Which I always managed to, but just barely, I always wanted to run out of here, just so that I didn't have to stand still. But I also knew that it meant death, and I wasn't that stupid. So I sucked it in and stood still, but I constantly moved my hands and feet, and that helped a little.

"Welcome District Twelve to the two hundredth annual Hunger Games and the tenth quarter quell." Our new escort, a young Capital girl that was probably only nineteen years old, but she was already surgically changed beyond any body of any age in this district. She had orange fox ears, an orange and white tipped tail, nails that looked more like short claws, and was that white hair? Yes, that was white hair. "As your new escort, I think an introduction is in place." She then cleared her throat before continuing. "My name is Aureliana, I'm nineteen years old, and believe it or not, but District Twelve is my favorite district out of the thirteen of you."

Huh, usually the Capital hated District Twelve because we hardly had any victors. In fact, in our two hundred and fifty years of Hunger Games, we've only had fourteen victors, or something like that. "And I'm really sorry about what's going to happen to some of you this year, I really am. I wish that I didn't have to make my appearance this way, but because of the reading of the card and Panem's rising population, we've got to make some," She gave a little cough. "Unfortunately changes to the reapings. I'm sorry District Twelve, I wish we could of meet on better circumstances."

She said that, but I bet she didn't give half a care about us. She was Capital, they only cared about our victors and our production to fuel their needs. They didn't care about the people in general, only what we had to offer them.

Aureliana walked over to the female reaping bowl, which was surprisingly empty with only a few slips of paper in there.

"What does she mean changes?" Livi asked.

"I don't know." I truthfully told her. I had no idea what was going on.

Aureliana picked out a piece of paper and read out.

"Thirteen."

Suddenly, the sound of falling rocks occurred a fair distance away from me. I turned around, to see that huge chunks of coal were falling down from the roof of the thirteen year old cage, and were hitting the young teenagers in the head before they collapsed onto the ground. I didn't know if I was seeing things or not, but I thought I saw blood flow down the thirteen year olds heads.

I began to feel myself panic. The dead bodies. Me being trapped in a cage, with falling chunks of coal that could drop on me. Livi.

"Any volunteers? I heard Aureliana ask though my panic. "Volunteer to go into the games, and that many less kids have to die."

"I volunteer!" I shout. Get me out of here, I think. Get me out of here, then I can be safe. Livi can be safe. Then everyone else can be safe from being killed. "I volunteer!"

A peacekeeper grabbed my arm before pulling me out of the cage and escorting me to the stage, right next to the new escort.

"What's your name?" She asked.

"Dare Nettle." I told her, feeling relief of being out of that dangerous, closed off, inescapable cage.

"Thank you for volunteering, Dare." Aureliana said with relief in her voice. She must of been relived for there not to be anymore death. I'd like to think that, but she might be relived of something else.

But the thought of her being relived was shattered by my panic. My worry had came back as fast as it had left. I now realized, I had volunteered to go into the arena.

Fuck.

**Zeal Skoda's POV**

What were those thirteen year olds doing? Why did the fall asleep when they received a bunch of coal? They must of been so happy to receive that coal that they fell asleep! Though how you could do that I didn't know.

"Fifteen." I heard our foxy escort with the funny name say to us. She must be telling us who was getting some coal.

I turned around, to see that the fifteen year old boys were getting coal from the top of their cage. Again, they were all so happy that they feel over asleep. I wish we could get some coal, it was cold in our club house without the coal that Ruthie, Russell, and Darwin brought.

"Zeal," I heard Russell say to me. "Volunteer."

"Volunteer?" I asked.

"Yes, volunteer." Russell told me. "When the escort asks for volunteers, shout, I volunteer."

"Why?" I asked, wondering why I'd want to shout out I volunteer. Normally during a reaping, you kept your mouth shut and only went up when they called your name. Though some tried to run away, they were then dragged up to the stage by the peacekeepers.

"You'll get to go to the Capital," I heard Darwin tell me excitedly. "In the Capital, they'll have food fit for kings. And candy, more candy then this entire district has to offer."

"Really?' I asked, getting excited myself just thinking about the stuff in the Capital.

"Really." My friend told me. "I'd go, but I owe you for eating that powdered bread."

I was going to do as he said, but then I thought of what everyone said about volunteering. It was dangerous.

"Isn't it dangerous?" I asked, thinking of the other kids the went to the Capital, only to never come back.

"Only if you make it," Darwin assured me. "Are you going to make it dangerous Zeal?"

"No." I told him. "I'll make it safe."

"Then it'll be safe."

"Right," Russell agreed. "It'll be safe for you."

"Okay." I said, believing my friends. I just wished that I could talk to Ruthie and Lucy, but Russell and Darwin were with me, and they said it was going to be okay.

"Any volunteers?" The foxy girl asked.

"I volunteer!" I shouted.

A couple moments later, a peacekeeper in white grabbed my arm before leading me to the stage, right next to the foxy lady.

Ha! She looked even funnier this close to me.

"What's your name?" She asked.

"My name's Zeal." I told her proudly. "Zeal Skoda."

"Thank you, Zeal."

Why was she thanking me.

"Your welcome?" I told her, confused.

"Now shake your partner's hand." She told me.

I looked around to see the other girl that wanted to go to the Capital as well. She was short with dark brown hair that reminded me of chocolate and pale skin. She was thin, like almost everyone here. I reached over to her with my hand, and she did as well, but she looked at me with her bright blue eyes like she was scared.

Why was she scared of me? Why were a lot of people scared of me anyway?

Speaking of which, why were all the adults crying? Didn't they like what their kids had gotten them? Oh, they were crying with joy. Yeah, that's it.

**A/N: Well, that's District Twelve done. Dur. **

**So what do you all think of the newest competitors?**

**Still need a D2 female along with D9, D10, and D11 male.**

**Also, to anyone that read this far, I just want to say that I want to face keyboard so hard for now noticing that the Capital is really spelt the CAPITOL Capitol.**


	9. District 10

**Warning: Colourful language.**

**District Ten**

**Perla Freuff's POV**

"What the fuck is this?" The dealer snarled at me as he looked at the products in his hand. "Is this all there fucking is?"

I nodded my head to tell him that that was all that I had to offer him. It wasn't as much as I normally gave him, but he was at least getting something to sell. "You little bitch, you took some of it for yourself didn't you." He growled angrily, his eyes shooting daggers at me. "I can see if in your eyes, in your movements."

Yeah, well, it doesn't matter that I took some for myself, they were mine and I was just sharing it with you so that I could get some easy cash. "Your little fix is getting in the way of my sales. Either give me what you have in your pockets or give me your clothes to sell if you have no money on you that you can give me, or pay up in some other way."

I shook my head to tell him that I wasn't going to pay him anything more then what I had already gave him. I didn't care about his business, I only cared about my business. If he ran dry then I could always move to someone else, the only reason I was dealing with him was because he was the easiest one to sell to, the closest one to my house, nothing more.

The look on his face changed the instant I shook my head, he wasn't liking it at all. "Listen here you little cunt," He growled before he reached over to me and grabbed the top of my head and pulled my hair towards him. "Your going to pay me what I'm here for or-" He didn't get to finish, I knew a threat when I heard one, and this was most definitely one, and I didn't take shit from no one. Especially not some low life dealer.

I reached my arms up, grabbed the arm that was holding my hair, pushed inside his elbow, leaned in towards him, before I bit into his bicep. Hard. Drawing blood. Nobody does that to me and gets away with it.

I heard him scream in pain a second before I ripped the skin out of his upper arm, making him scream even louder.

I felt him let go of my hair as he grabbed his injured arm upon reflex. Bad mistake.

I slammed a right fist into his face, causing him to stagger back a step before I slammed a left fist across his face. Right. Left. Right. Left. Right. Left. The dealer fell onto one knee before I kicked him in the face, causing him to fall onto his back.

I took the opportunity to do some real damage to him.

I jumped onto his chest before I leaned down and bit his nose before pulling back, hearing his flesh tear from his face before a spray of blood splashed onto me.

The dealer shouted out in agony before I spat out his nose, leaned in again, and bit him in the neck. I felt the warm liquid seep into my mouth before I ripped his neck open and watched the hole fill up with blood like an over flooded well.

The man started to twitch violently as blood started to lightly come out of his mouth and nose hole.

That's what happens to people that mess with me, to people that make me angry, they pay the price.

I got off the dealer before grabbing his black jacket before it got too ruined with blood. It was a nice jacket, and I wanted it. I then took everything in his pockets. Coins, lighters, drugs, crack pipes, I took it all, and he couldn't do a damn thing to stop me.

I walked away from him, feeling the narcotics inside of me working even stronger due to the little adrenaline rush that I was experiencing.

Dad wanted me to sell the drugs, well it seems that I didn't even need to get rid of them to make some money. I could keep these drugs for myself, keep this jacket for myself, keep most of this money for myself and only give what dad expected. I could sell the lighters and crack pipes to other junkies since I already had a lighter and crack pipe of my own.

Dad wouldn't know that I killed the dealer, those kinds of people drop dead nearly everyday, just like a lot of the people in this District. And besides, there was always someone else that I could sell to.

**Tanner Hart's POV**

"Stop you god damn little bastard cunt fuckface jerkoff motherfucker!" I shouted as I chased that damn sheep around the field again. Yet again, someone let open the gate and let them run loose. Probably that Ilia who thinks that she can get away with anything just because she's our owner's niece.

I'm admire her for being so careless and fearless, but she's a fucking nutjob who's fucking crazy as shit. She likes to be in control and is a major buzz kill on the job. And now was probably one of those moments when she just happened to be one. Not that I don't hate her, I just don't like her a lot of times.

My friends and I were supposed to go see our owner, Merope Greenlaw, but because of the sheep getting loose, we were running late, and Greenlaw was probably going to give us half rations for not showing up in time.

"Somebody help Tanner with that sheep!" I heard a female voice shout out.

"Why don't you help me instead of shouting for help!" I roared at her, keeping my eyes of the sheep that continued to run away from me.

"Don't worry Tanner!" A male voice shouted, getting rapidly closer to me. "I'm coming!"

Suddenly, I felt the force of a sack of rocks land on me, sending me to the ground.

"God damn it!" I shouted as I saw that lone animal get farther away from me. I looked around to see that D'ardaigh was on my back. "Ahh!" I shouted out in frustration. He let the stupid animal get away! Not that it was completely his fault. "You faggot ass son of a bitch! You let that stupid animal get away! Did you fall over your own stupidness you donkey butt licking bastard!"

"Sorry that I tried to jump on it." D'ardaigh told me as his body got off of me.

"Next time jump on the thing that needs to be stopped. Ass." I shot at him as the white coated beast ran into the fenced area that it was supposed to go into fifteen minutes ago. The place we'd been trying to get it into.

Oh, so now it decides to go in! After all this time wasted chasing after it, it now decides to get into it's pen! "Stupid animal!" I shout at it. "Stupid mother fucking animal! Do you like jerking us around? Huh! Do you?" All the sheep did was stare at me, like it was too stupid to understand, but I knew better. They were smart, smarter then they let on. "Fuck you!" I shouted as Tarbh, D'ardaigh's sister, shut the fenced area around the sheep closed. "I'll rip your head off and boil you alive!"

"Shouldn't it be that you'll boil it alive, then rip it's head off?" Tarbh asked as she locked the gate.

Yeah, it should, your right.

"Shut up Tarbh." I told her.

Well, at least we got that damn animal inside it's cage and we can go get ready for the reapings. A short break from working on the fields all day long, and a chance to go into the town. We hardly got to go into town due to our owner telling us to work on the farm. The only times were got to go into town was when she, or her niece, needed something, or on reaping day.

I liked going to town and seeing all the district had to offer, even if it wasn't very much. But at least it was a change of scenery from the same old boring farm, even if nearly all this district is is farms.

"Hey you lazy folks!" A high pitched female voice shouted out behind me. I knew that voice the second the first letter was sounded, it was Ilia Greenlaw, our owner's niece. What did she want? "You were supposed to be in the house ten minutes ago to get ready for the reapings!" Like he needed to be reminded, but thanks for thinking about us. "Now come on, let's go! Chop chop! Hurry hurry!"

I didn't need to be told to hurry, I knew that Merope Greenlaw didn't like us being late for anything for any reason. She liked things neat and professional. And of course, I didn't want to get shot for not going to the reapings.

"Your not in charge!" I shouted at Ilia. "So shop acting like you are ass for a face!" I said that even though I knew that she had our best interests in mind and that she was actually quite pretty.

"Don't worry Ilia," D'ardaigh shouted sweetly at her. "You've got a nice ass so you've got a good face!"

Oh D'ardaigh, trying to pick up chicks again, you just can't resist can you? Even if it's our owner's niece you can't resist. You and your flirting have the funniest results sometimes.

"You really need to work on your flirts, perv!" Ilia shouted at him, not in the least bit amused. "Now you, Tarbh, and Tanner get into the house, I've picked out some reaping clothes for all three of you. Now come on, get inside so I can finally leave."

***Little time skip***

"Hi Tanner." A smiling, black haired girl wearing a black and white checkered blouse said cheerfully as she ran up to me and my friends before she stopped just short of us. "You look, uh, nice in that shirt of yours."

I looked down at what used to be a clean, white dress shirt that was now dirty in several places. I told Ilia that it would get dirty, but did she belive me, nope, she commanded me to wear this shirt. It was nice, but it had gotten stained before we even left the farm. It wasn't her fault though, everything tends to get dirty around the farm.

"It's dirty," I told her. "It's stupid, and it irritates the shit out of me."

"Oh, well, sorry to hear that." She kind of did sound sorry, and her smile disappeared, so she did kind of look it as well. Did I deserve this?

"Say something nice to her." D'ardaigh whispered to me. Uh, say something nice. Okay, I could do that. Think Tanner, what can you say that could make her feel good?

"Well," I said looking at her. "You look very, um," I saw her mouth move a little, so I guess I was on the right track. "Whoreable."

"Horrible?" The girl said with a bit of shock in her voice and on her face.

"Yeah," I told her, not getting what was so bad about it. "Whoreable." Maybe if I explained it she'd get it. "Like those girls out on the street that ask people if they want a good time."

The girl then looked a little uncomfortable before she turned around and started to walk away from us. Did I say something wrong?

"Dude that was lame." D'ardaigh said in a sing song voice before he started laughing.

"Yeah, like you could do any better shit brain. I did what you said and said something nice to her."

"Being called a whore is not a compliment." Tarbh told me. It wasn't? But those girls on the street with the short clothes liked being called that. And that's what they were called.

"Then what is skin peeler?" I asked.

"Not that either." She answered.

"But that's what you are." I told her as I looked at her body. Short and stocky with light brown wavy hair and skin that kept on sunburning and peeling. I don't understand why that keeps on happening to her, and I kind of worry about that. After all, her brother never got anything as bad as her. I mean, Tarbh was peeling on the face, and that was quite disgusting at times. It also looked like it hurt.

And Ilia and Tarbh were the same age, fifteen, and only Tarbh was experiencing that kind of skin problem. So was something wrong with my friend? Was it something to worry about?

"It would be like me calling you grease ball." She explained to me. "Your skin is oily, which makes you have a load of freckles on your body. You also have greasy black hair, greasy hair on your body, and I think this is the first time you've changed your clothes in a week. Or better yet, I think this is the first time you've bathed in a week."

That was true as well, I had a lot of freckles around my beige coloured skin along with my greasy shoulder length black hair, which I did keep tied back with a piece of twine, and today was the first time I've washed myself or changed clothes. And it did make me feel down, so I got what she was saying, but I tried not to show it. "Look Tanner, I know that it's hard for you, because of, whatever your problem is, but I'm sure you can get better."

"Yeah, just follow my lead and you'll get better in no time." D'ardaigh boasted. I looked over to him to see that he had a giant smile on his face.

"Dear brother, you may be bad with flirting, but Tanner is bad with talking in general. We need to get him some practice. Practice on someone who he won't be seeing too often and won't mind being practiced on by someone that has a diarrhea mouth."

I then started laughing at that. Diarrhea mouth. "Practice on that Capital sign in lady over there," Tarbh told me, pointing to a pale skinned, blue haired women behind a desk. "We'll be right behind you for support."

All right. This shouldn't be too hard.

I walked into the line of kids, stood behind them, and waited for my turn behind the herd of kids that were signing in.

"What's your name?" I heard the Capital lady at the sign in booth ask the black and purple haired girl in front of me.

"Paherla flureuppph." The girl in front of me answered. Wow, sounded like she had a hard time speaking, and was she trying to spit at the Capital lady? It sure sounded like it. Was she okay?

"Age?"

"Eithgutehehn." Could the Capital lady even understand a word she was saying?

"Tesserae?"

"Thhuree."

"Three. All right. Go over to the cage marked eighteen in the girl's section." The Capitol lady instructed her before she left without saying another word. From the tone of her voice, she wanted that girl away from her.

"Remember Tanner," Tarbh said as we walked forward to the sign in desk. "No swearing, no insults, and just answer the questions."

"Yeah yeah, I know." I told her.

This shouldn't be too hard, all I'd need to do is answer three questions, and that was all. If a girl with speech problems could do it, so could I.

"Next!" The Capital lady shouted, before she looked up and saw that I was already in front of her. "Oh, your here."

"Oh course I'm-" I started, but Tarbh hit my right shoulder, telling me to stop. So I did.

"Name." The Capital lady asked, now looking down at her papers.

"Tanner Hart." I told her.

"Age?"

"Eighteen."

"Tesserae?"

"I don't know."

"What do you mean you don't know?" The Capital lady asked, looking up at me.

"I don't know if I should." I told her.

"You either do your you don't, it's not that hard kid." The way she said those words with irritation in her voice, it just made me want to say something. But I held it in, I was supposed to be good.

"What should I do Tarbh?" I asked, looking to my friend for support.

"Just take some out, God knows we need the food."

"So how many then?" The Capital lady asked. I could tell from her voice that she was running low on patients, she was using the same tone of voice that used when she was in the same mood.

"Well there's me, Tarbh, D'ardaigh, Ilia-" I told her, counting the people that were at the ranch that I could use for Tesserae.

"Just tell me how many people your taking it out for kid." The Capitol lady interjected roughly. "I don't have all damn day."

"I was, fat ass." I felt a hard hit to the right shoulder as the Capitol lady glared up at me. Opps.

"What did you say?"

"Nothing." I lied as D'ardaigh held in laughter.

"Get to your cage." She growled, pointing to the black steel cages with surrounded by clear hard plastic that could be seen a mile away. I wondered what they were for, and I was about to find out.

I walked away from the signing booth and started mockingly mimicking her voice without even trying.

"Get to your cage, get to your cage." I heard some laughter behind me for some reason.

**Perla Freuff's POV**

I can't belive that I managed to talk to that Capital women, I hate speaking out loud. Because of my speech problem, I got made fun of a lot in this district and got hated because of the drugs that I both took and sold. It just seemed that I was destined to be hated, because of a birth defect, because I was different. And to the few who would talk to me, all I had to do was open my mouth and speak maybe two or three words and they'd either hate me or make fun of me because of my speech problem. And if I somehow managed to not talk to them, they'd quickly find out about my drug problem.

There was only one person who truly understood me. Sonny, a guy who helps me with my drugs. He understands that drugs are good, it's a mental and physical boaster that helps you. It makes you have more energy, it helps you not care so much. Without the narcotics that I inhaled, I'd never of been able to talk to that Capital women and sign in. Never would have in all these six years of signing in.

I felt the narcotics in my new jacket pocket and felt comforted by them as I entered the cage marked: 18.

As soon as I got into the cage with all the other girls, they all started talking among themselves, looking at me and pointing. Not that I cared, I was beyond caring now a days. Everyone in the district, it seemed, knew who and what I was. Yeah, I used drugs. Yeah I sold them to anyone with the money, even little eight year old kids who wanted a little boast of energy. Yes, I was a freak that spoke like a retard and wore red colour contacts because it burned my eyes and gave me an adrenaline rush. We all know, you don't have to keep talking about it.

"What the fuck are you looking at." I snarled at the girls inside the cage with me. "You want something? Need something."

They turned away, but continued talking in hush like voices. I could still hear them though, they were right next to me. It pissed me off that they thought that I couldn't hear them, and I wanted to do something to them, and I would of if there wasn't every peacekeeper in the district surrounding us.

I didn't take too much of the drug, I knew that I was going to be here today, so I wasn't going to go crazy of these bitches.

"Hello District Ten to the tenth quarter quell!" Our escort, Correpa Decipio, shouted into the microphone. She spook quickly, so if you happened to even yawn you'd miss the whole speech. "I'll just have you all know that the cages your all in is because of the special twist this year." She was also a nervous person who couldn't seem to stand still, she always had to twiddle with her fingers or something. Maybe that's why she spoke quickly, she just hated talking. Like me. "President Blizzard's reading of the card plus Panem's sky rocketing population calls for such an event in which you'll soon find out."

A special reaping for a quarter quell. That must be the reason behind the cages. But what could they possibly use these cages for? Why did they need these cages that were more suited for animals then humans? And why did they place hard plastic around the cages as well?

Correpa suddenly ran towards the near empty reaping bowls and quickly picked out a piece of paper, then ran back to the microphone before unfolding the piece of paper and read out what was written on it. "Thirteen."

Thirteen? What the hell kind of name is that?

I looked around to see who was called, only to see that some girls in the cage marked thirteen were getting ripped apart by huge grey dogs, the very ones that the peacekeepers patrolled the area with. I hated those dogs, they were used to sniff out things, to track people, to control loose farm animals, and to kill. They were doing the later, they were ripped huge, bloody chunks of human flesh out with their teeth, their muzzles covered with red, and dead bodies everywhere in that cage.

What the fuck was going on here? Was this what the special reapings were? This was bad. This was really bad.

I heard the other girls around me act just as shocked and confused as I was, they had no idea what was going on either.

I watched the grey dogs exit the thirteen year old cage when I heard our escort speak again. "Any volunteers?"

I looked at everyone in the square. The kids around me, the adults, the peacekeepers, the Capital folk. They all had different reactions. The Peacekeepers were as calm as could be. The Capital folks were either disgusted or calm, not even looking as us anymore, except our escort. The kids and adults were completely shocked, some were crying.

I looked at the adults, and some of them were crying, and I knew why they were crying, they had just lost their kids. Why did that remind me of my mother? Why did I was to volunteer for them?

"I fhhtoulunther!" I shouted. Thinking of the mothers that would go into deep depression because of their dead kids. They didn't deserve to be depressed. There were too many depressed mothers here already, there didn't need to be more. "Ifhhtoulunter!"

As a peacekeeper unlocks the cage door and escorts me up the stage, I tell myself that I volunteered to save myself, not for anyone else in this damn district, because why would I want to save a district that hates me?

But at the moment, all I can think about is my mom.

"What's your name?" Correpa asks me in his quick talking voice.

"Paherla flureuppph." I quickly tell her, not wanting to speak more then I want to.

Correpa didn't even say anything else to me when she runs to the next reaping bowl.

**Tanner Hart's POV**

Whatwhatwhatwhatwhat, fuck shit goddamn, what? What the high fucking world is going on?

The peacekeeper's dogs were murdering people! And easily at that! I didn't think too much of the peacekeepers and their dogs when I first saw them entering the square, I thought that the cages were to keep us all separated from each other so that they could find us easier and that the dogs were to chase the chosen one down if he or she ran away. But fuck, I didn't think that the cages were to trap us and the dogs were to eat us alive!

God fuck me in the ass if I'm wrong, but I think I'm watching a god damn mass execution that's taking place on live T.V. What the fuck kind of reaping is this? Thirteen year olds were given a cruel fate, and their parents an even worse one at the same time.

"Sixteen." Correpa announced.

Knowing what to expect now, I watched the peacekeepers take their bloody muzzled hell hounds to the sixteen year old male cage. One peacekeeper grabbed the door, unlocked the lock, and although I couldn't hear him through this hard plastic wall, I saw him mouth the word: Kill, before swinging open the door, letting the attack dogs inside.

I looked away from the cage, I didn't need to see those kids get ripped to pieces to know that they were getting torn apart.

I knew kids in there, even though I didn't know them well I recognized their faces. Might of seen them in town, might of seen them buy some stuff from the ranch, I can't remember, but I know that I recognize them.

This was god damn sick. Fucking Hunger Games! "Any volunteers?" Correpa asked.

Volunteers? Nobody in their right mind was going to volunteer! And that meant that I was going to die sooner or later. Sooner rather then later. Fuck! What should I do Tarbh? No! I can't depend on Tarbh forever. I have to become self sufficient on my own to make up for my lack of effective functioning in society.

"I volunteer!" I hear myself say. What the hell did I just say?

I hear the sound of a steel door opening before I get ripped out of the cage by a peacekeeper.

"Don't just stand their faggot!" The peacekeeper barked at me before she pointed at finger towards the stage while looking at her dog that was taller then her knee. "Move your soiled ass before I have my friend here rip your face off and take a shit in your skull!"

I couldn't help but laugh at that. Shit down my skull. "Shut the fuck up." She coarsely swore as she shoved me forward.

Damn, why'd I volunteer, I'm not a hero, not even close. I have no idea why that purple and black haired ghost skinned, red contacts girl volunteered, but I have a feeling that drugs helped her feel brave.

As I walked up the stage, I shouted to the district kids.

"District Ten! Remember me! For I saved all of your pathetic lives and you're all in my dept forever! And don't think that I did it for you, I did it for me! Me! I don't feel a thing! So ha to all of you!" I could feel the death stares of the citizens of District Ten shoot me head on, and it made me feel kind of bad that I did say that, I just wanted them to know that I saved all of them. To distract them from all the death around them, even if just temporarily.

"And what's your name?" Correpa asked me as the peacekeeper shoved me towards her.

I looked at her for a second before thinking of everything she had just done with little remorse for everyone that had just died and lost something.

"Go shove a branding iron up your ass you horse fucker!"

I lifted a fist up to hit her in the face, only to feel the weight of a hundred bricks hit my back as loud, animalistic snarling occurred beside my left ear before I hit my face on the stage floor. Hard. With four legs on my back. A dog was on my back, and it's hot breath was spraying across the back of my neck.

"You should really watch who you mouth off cunt." The peacekeeper who pulled me out of the cage said before I felt something hard hit me across the back of the head before pain radiated in the same spot I had been hit.

"Fuck off!"

**A/N: You know, when I first got Tanner, I didn't think that there would be so much swearing, but it just sort of happened. I hope I got Tanner's personality right, it was kind of hard, despite your vivid explanation.**

**Anyway, I've only got one spot left, the D9 male.**

**I'm three quarters of the way done the reapings! Who hoo! **


	10. District 11

**District Eleven**

**Adrian Colton's POV**

"Adrian!" A booming voice shouted through the darkness, causing everything around me to seem to shatter and pull me out of a wonderful trance. "Wake your ass up!" The feminine voice shouted again before the world turned from a comfortable black, to an angry bright red.

The sudden change in colour and temperature irritated my eyes and face as I felt my arms move towards my face to shield them from the sudden change in scenery and heat.

"Go away Jeana," I told one of the two only people who ever disturbed my naps. Jeana was the only girl that wakes me from my naps, so it was easy to figure that it was her. Not that I wouldn't recognize that voice of her's, her voice was unforgettable. "Got nothing to do 'till the reapings."

Reaping day was a time of rest, no work for us common folks besides show up to the square on time, sign in, and have one of us unfortunate kids chosen to go into the arena. If I was a Capitol worker, a peacekeeper, or the mayor, that'd be a different story. But I'm not one of those, so there's nothing for me to do. "And give me my hat back. Where ever it is." Until my hat was back over my face, I'd use my hand to get the friendly darkness back and get back to sleep.

"That's what I'm here for you sloth," Jeana told me with an edge in her voice. "The reapings are almost here and you need to get ready."

"Now?" I asked, wondering how close the reapings were.

"No," My friend said with heavy sarcasm. "Tomorrow. Of course now you idiot. What? You want to get a death sentence or something?" Darn, I still felt like napping. Ah well, what could you do, everyone had to attend the reapings, despite how damn populated our district is.

No wait, all the kids had to attend the reapings, everyone else just got the day off if they weren't working. Well, I can't wait until next year when I'm an adult and I don't absolutely have to go to the reapings. Sleep through all of it, that would be nice for a change.

"Fine," I sighed. "Give me five minutes and I'll be inside."

"It must feel so nice to bake your skin out in the hot sun," Jeana sarcastically told me. "Makes you never want to leave the shitty make shift bed you created six feet away from your house."

The thing was, it did feel good, better then being inside. I liked the outdoors, the rays of the sun on your skin, the cool crisp breeze that'd sometimes occur, the smell of crops and dirt and other odours. Yeah, it felt nice.

"Need to wake up." I responded, slowly stretching out my elbows.

"You are up. Now get your ass in gear!" My friend shouted before I felt the piece of plywood I was laying on suddenly rise into the air on a sharp angle, causing me to tumble to the ground.

This did not feel like a good morning.

I suddenly felt liquid start splashing onto my chest and face, sending an instant chill to those areas of my body. What was that? Why was there liquid splashing over me? Was it suddenly raining? Nah, couldn't be, rain doesn't start out that heavy. I started waving my arms around wildly to swat off the liquid in vain as I spat and began to quickly recover from my drowsiness when I had a thought.

"Is that my booze?" I asked, wondering about the bottle of alcohol that I remember drinking out of before I feel asleep. Was Jeana pouring my alcohol on me?

"Yeah." Jeana said a matter of factly. "What about it?"

Aw man, now I'd have to change my clothes and have a quick rinse before heading out to the square. Thanks for the extra work Jeana, I thought sarcastically, it's really appreciated.

"Nothing." I told her as I picked myself up from the ground and walked towards the house.

"Oh yes, and take your time you slug," Jeana, once again, said with sarcasm. "We have all the time in the world." It's not even close to ten yet, I thought as I looked at the sun's position in the sky. I didn't see what the big hurry was, I'd make it. I wouldn't have thirty minutes to spare, but I'd make it in time. I saw no need to rush.

Damn. Fine morning this is.

Oh, right, where's my hat?

**Caritta Desin's POV**

"Get the fuck out of here you little skank!" My father shouted before he threw me outside the house. I landed on the hard ground and slid a little from the force of his throw, dirtying my blue t-shirt and jeans. "Come back when you have something to offer us other then that smart ass mouth of yours." And with that, I heard the door of our crummy little slam shut, leaving me outside on my own, again.

It wasn't the first time that's happened, I've been kicked out of my home before, I didn't mind, home wasn't that great anyway. Not that outside was that great anyway, all I did outside was either wonder the district, or work. Maybe I'd buy something once in a while, but other then those above choices, I didn't do anything else.

I picked myself off the ground and dusted off my clothes before I started to head towards the square, like I was supposed to. My life wasn't much to live for, but I still wanted to live. Despite everything that's happening to my life and how the people around this district treat me, I still want to live. I don't know why, it'd be easier to just end my suffering, because I know that things aren't going to get any better for me, but I still want to live. At least, until I'm satisfied with something in my life. Until then, I want to live.

As I walked to the square, I saw some kids from school look at me while whispering to each other and pointing to me. I didn't need to hear them to know that they were talking about my sexual preferences. I liked both guys and girls, and that automatically made me a freak. I didn't see anything wrong with it, but the rest of the district did, they saw me as everything that was wrong. They said that I couldn't decide between the two genders, that I was confused and a sad piece of shit, that I was messed up in the head. Well I wasn't, it's just the way I am, couldn't they just see that? No, no they couldn't. Fucking jerks.

"What the fuck are you looking at me for?" I shouted angrily at the kids talking about me as I picked up a nearby rock. It was a good size, good for scaring and hurting people. "Go talk about something else for once!" I shouted before I threw the rock at them.

The rock flew towards them before it crashed into one of the boy's nose, causing him to hold his nose with both hands as blood poured from it.

"Fuck you Caritta!" The injured boy shouted as him and his friends ran away from me. "Fuck you you little shit bag!"

I felt myself get angry at their insults at me, and while I felt satisfied with hurting them and making them run away, I didn't feel all that good breaking his nose. Weird as it was, I was satisfied, but didn't feel all that great. Weird.

I continued to walk to the square, thinking of all the abuse I've received over the years. From my mother, from my father, from the rest of the district, I've been physically and mentally abused. Though through all of that, that's what's made me strong. Strong, but alone.

I continued to walk to the square by my lonesome self until I got to the line up for one of the many sign in tables.

**Adrian Colton's POV**

Jeana. She's quick tempered and rough with people, and she's the same with the canines she tames and trains as well. But for some reason, those mutts just love her, and for the life of me I can't figure out why. It's just another one of those mysteries in life that I'll never be able to understand.

"How's Harley doing?" I asked Scotch, one of the many peacekeepers patrolling the long lines of kids signing in. Harley, his dog, was begging Jeana to pet him, to give him attention. Even though Harley was a chocolate brown coated dog that looked more like wolf then a dog, he acted like a puppy next to Jeana. If I didn't know that that mutt could easily rip me into bloody chunks, I would of thought that he wasn't a peacekeeping dog. That is, if I didn't see the red substances around his muzzle.

"Fucking awesome," Scotch excitedly told me. "Harley here chased down this little coward that refused to sign in. Eighteen years old and he wouldn't sign in, so Harley here bit into the bastard's thigh on command and wouldn't let go until I told him so. Little fucker almost tried to gorge out Harley's eyes out though, until I slammed a fist into his ugly face and told him to sign in before I asked Harley to rip his manhood out."

The way Scotch explained all this with glee made me think of the other peacekeepers. Sure they were friendly with my friends and family since we were tamers and trained their dogs, that were more like wolves, to be proper peacekeeping forces. But they were ruthless and almost, if not, psychopathic. I'm glad that I'm not on their bad side and that I have some favour from the higher ups. Dad's friendship with the mayor allows us some benefits, but if push comes to shove, the peacekeepers will release their hounds on us without a second thought.

"Guess Jeana's given them some of her personality." Bailey, the youngest of us tamers, laughed as Harley continued to pester Jeana. I couldn't help but laugh as well, and so did the other tamers. Maybe the reason Jeana was so great with the dogs, was because she was just like them. Vicious.

"Also, Jeana looks just like Harley." I told her. "They like fighting and need to be watched out for." I saw Jeana give me a dirty look that said: Don't you dare say it. I ignored it though. "I guess you could say that-" Then all at once, my friends and I said.

"They're not so different after all." It was then that we laughed, at Jeana's expense. Even though I knew the consequences, I couldn't resist, I couldn't help it.

"Are you calling me a dog?" Jeana shouted angrily at me before she started to run towards me with the intention of hurting me. "Get over here!"

I started to run away from her while the sound of laughter came from Baily, Amos, Garret, Haley, and Scotch. I couldn't help but laugh as well, Jeana was so cute when she was mad.

I zig-zagged around the lines of kids as Jeana continued to chase me with fury unrivalled only by the peacekeepers and their animal partners. "I'm going to break every bone in your body Adrian!" I couldn't help but laugh, smile, and watch her chase me. Her chocolate hair, brown eyes and brown skin, why did she look so pretty when she was chasing me? Or when she was mad?

"Get him!" Haley playfully shouted. "Kick his ass!"

"No mercy Jeana!" Garret also playfully shouted.

"Run faster!" Amos quickly added. Which one of us was he talking to? Oh well, it didn't matter.

The people around us were giving us dirty looks and the Capitol folks didn't seem to enjoy it either. I tried not to bump into too many people, but Jeana just crashed through everyone in her way. Sorry everyone, I guess I got caught up in the moment.

I quickly turned around and let Jeana run into my open arms before I lifted her into the air and kissed her.

My girlfriend was still for a second, but that didn't last long. I only got her to stay still still for a couple of seconds before she pulled away from me and gave me a mighty headbut to my forehead, causing me to drop her. It hurt, but I didn't really care much, I could see that Jeana had calmed down somewhat. She was still a little angry, but she was looking slightly away from me. If I didn't know better, I'd say that there was a blush on her face, though it was hard to tell with her brown skin.

"Why do I like you anyway? You're a lazy person who sleeps more then he's awake. Sloth." She half grumbled half kidded. Though there was no trace of a smile on her face, I knew that she liked it, and that she wasn't completely kidding.

"Us white people are a minority in this district," I told her, kidding heavily, but not completely. "Not many of us white folks here. Plus, it has nothing to do with my good looks." I completely kidded about that last part, I wasn't ugly, but then again, I wasn't the best looking person out there. Dark chestnut brown hair that I never bothered to work with, blue eyes, tanned skin and lean body. I looked out of place with maybe ninety five percent of the district being brown or black. "Also, you know how I like fighters like you Jeana baby."

"You'll love this then." Jeana told me before I felt a sharp pain in my left shin.

"Ow!" I shouted as I lifted my leg into the air and grabbed my injured spot with my hands. "You kicked me in the shin." And I didn't even know if what she said was sarcastic or not. It sounded like it, but at the same time...

"You said you like fighters," Jeana said with that smile of hers. "Don't you like us any more Adrian?" This girl, I couldn't put in words how much I liked her.

"I do still like you." I told her as I hopped on one leg towards her to place my arm around her shoulder. "If anything, that kick only made me like you even more."

I felt a light blow to my stomach. It wasn't hard, just something to tell me that she wasn't done with me yet.

"Keep talking like that white boy and you'll end up black with bruises."

I smiled at her before we walked back to our friends and fellow tamers. And Scotch and Harley.

"I'll leave you kids alone now." Scotch said when we got back to where we were before my girlfriend started chasing me around. "Got work to do, people to intimidate, people to fuck with, the usual."

"Right, see you Scotch. Harley." I said as the early thirties peacekeeper and his should be wolf walked away from us, looking at everyone sharply, daring them to cause trouble.

Peacekeepers, they were scary. They'd as easily shoot you as talk to you. Scotch was one of the nice ones, but even then I could see the murderous look in his eyes. Even though I was on good terms with them with training their dogs and helping them out with maintenance, I didn't fuck with them. I also kept the peace around some of the fields when I had the chance. People around here live a dangerous life, and I don't want them to throw away their life because of a spontaneous fit, it's not worth mouthing off a peacekeeper, or starting a fight, or an eggplant, or anything else that gets you the undivided attention of the peacekeepers if it ends your life. I feel that we have enough deaths as it is without somebody doing something stupid.

"I wonder if Scotch'll attack someone just because he doesn't like the way they look." Amos said just as Scotch was out of ear shot.

"Don't talk for a bit Amos." I told my friend. He was a good tamer and stuff, but half the time, I don't think he even knows the situation he's in. If anything, I don't even think that he thinks before he opens his mouth and speaks. He's not really that smart either. I worry for him, because one day, I think that's going to be his downfall.

"Okay." He obeyed as Jeana and I got back in line with them.

As I got nearer to the sign in table, I noticed that there were black steel cages with thick, see through material around the cages that were a mixture of metal and hard plastic. Each of the cages were marked twelve to eighteen. In addition to that, there were huge, black, cast iron cauldron on top of the cages. What were they all for?

The tenth quarter quell, the unknown reading of the card. President Blizzard kept us in suspense by not reading that card, and it freaked some people out. For the past six months, people wondered what the twist for this year was. Couldn't say I blamed them, I had gone through quarter quell twists in my mind, and not all of them involved twenty four tributes become friends and escaping together.

I got up to the sign in booth when the Capitol women started to talk to me.

"Name?" She asked.

"Adrian Colton." I answered.

"Age?"

"Eighteen."

"Tesserae?"

"One for my father, Nathaniel Colton. One for my mother, Avery Colton. And one for my dick brother, Andre Colton."

"All right then, get to your cage with the number eighteen marked on it."

I stepped out of line before looked back at my girlfriend.

"I'll see you after this event."

"Like I'd want to see you that soon." She sarcastically told me. She said that, but I could see a little smile come from her. We'd make it out of this, just like we always did. Of the tamers, I was the one with the biggest risk of getting picked due to all that Tesserae I pull out. And despite all that, I'm still here, if I can make it out of this, so can the rest of my friends.

I smiled at Jeane before I turned around and walked away. Yes, we were going to make it out alive, just like every year.

**Caritta Desin's POV**

I headed into the cage marked: 16, and heard the kids inside stop talking to one another as I entered. They all went silent as I stepped in, whatever they were talking about wasn't important any more, I was either a conversation killer or something much more interesting. I'd guess the second one.

The kids started talking to each other again, but this time quieter.

Again, I knew that they were talking about me.

"Yes, continue to talk bad about me," I sarcastically told them. "It's not like I don't know what your talking about, or can't hear you or anything." I couldn't hear what they were saying, but I knew what they were talking about. It pissed me off, couldn't they talk about something else besides me. That's all I ever heard, I was either useless or a freak. Shut up. I heard you all the last thousand times.

"Hello District Eleven!" Our escort shouted into the microphone when everyone had signed in and we were locked in our cages. "I have to say that this is fine turn out!"

A fine turn out? Everyone that needs to be here is here, that's it. What? Were you expecting a smaller crowd or something? "I have a good feeling about this reaping. And even though the reading of the card along with Panem's rising population brings us to do this, I'm sure that you guys won't make it any worse then it has to be."

We'll see about that won't we. We didn't even know what the quarter quell was, so we're just going to have to find out what it is first.

Our escort, Sandra, walked over to one of the glass reaping bowls before she pulled out a piece of paper and read out. "Eighteen."

What? Eighteen? What was going on?

I then heard a deep groan mixed with metal on metal. I looked in the direction of the sound, and saw that the cage marked eighteen had thick steam inside of it. I could also hear the screams of the girls inside of it, along with the screams of horror from the people outside of that cage.

I looked above the cages and saw a huge black cauldron pour seaming water on them. They were pouring hot water on them, and killing them.

I felt a smile work it's way onto my face. Those bitches had made fun of me for years. I didn't feel sorry for them, in fact, I was happy that they were getting killed. The sounds of their screams was music to my ears. "Any volunteers?" Sandra asked.

The kids looked around, looking for something, or better yet, someone, to save them from getting killed by the lethal liquid. But nobody did. "Oh dear, maybe after this." Sandra picked another piece of paper that read. "Fourteen." The sound of screams occurred behind me. Again, I didn't feel sorry for them.

Again Sandra asked, and no answer. "Fifteen." More screams. No volunteers. "Seventeen." More screams, but this time, I heard something else, I heard someone shouting the word cunt. I came from the guys section. Not that I cared. Those girls were getting what they deserved for making me life even more hellish then it already had been. "Twelve."

At the sound of the word twelve, I couldn't help but feel something. The twelve year olds, sure they picked on me, but they didn't deserve to die, they were too young for that. They were twelve. Too young to know any better. They didn't deserve death.

The next time Sandra asked for volunteers, I shouted

"I volunteer."

A collection of gasps formed around me. They were surprised that, the freak, had volunteered to save them. But I wasn't saving them, I felt bad for the twelve year olds, not them.

A peacekeeper unlocked my cage before escorting me to the stage.

"What's your name dear?" Sandra asked me.

"Caritta Desin." I answered.

**Adrian Colton's POV**

First the eighteen year olds. Then the fourteen year olds. Then the fifteen year olds, then the seventeen year olds that contained Haley, and her Jeana, my hot tempered, sarcastic, beautiful Jeana. Seeing the innocents was bad enough, but then Haley, and Jeana had to get caught in the cross fire. None of them deserved it, nobody deserved to have a cauldron full of boiling water get dumped on them.

The water was so hot that it melted their flesh, making it stretch and sag like melted rubber, causing them to look like mutants before they met their end. Their screams, their parents screams, their friend's screams, none of them deserved to have that experience.

The Hunger Games were troublesome in more then one horrific way, but this... This was more troublesome then it should of been. It was beyond cruel, it was senseless.

Panem's rising population? We get killed off daily. If there's a rise in the population I'm guessing it's in the career districts, or better yet, the Capitol. But I think the whole thing is bullshit, just some excuse to justify the killings.

Seeing all those kids get killed, followed by Haley and Jeana, I couldn't help but think of why someone couldn't volunteer. Wouldn't volunteer. I get that you're scared, but the others, think about someone else other then yourself for five seconds and you'll think of all those sorrowful parents, the parents that are suffering more inside then their kids are suffering on the outside. Their kid's pain is over, but their pain and sorrow and trauma is still on going.

When Jeana got killed, I slammed my fists against the clear walls surrounding our cage and shouted at the person who wouldn't volunteer.

"CUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNTT!"

I didn't scream at the escort, she was doing her job and actually wanted it to end, she was being optimistic yet professional. The peacekeepers were doing the same, they were just doing their jobs, thought they enjoyed it more then the escort was.

But the people cowering in their cages, waiting for death rather then the arena, they were the real bad guys. How could they watch what was going on in front of them and not want to do something?

I got a look from Garret when I shouted my true thoughts. I couldn't blame him either. At first, I acted bored, I yawned and said that they were bringing out the big guns. I only said that to mask my fear, to mask my disgust with this year's reapings.

But then finally, finally, after the twelve year olds were called, someone volunteered. I guess they valued life after all, even if it was only their own.

Caritta Desin was what she called herself, she had volunteered to save her own skin. She was like Jeana without the nice side. I only heard about her but hearing about her, and seeing her now, was all I needed to know about her.

I didn't go to school, I had work to do, and I didn't care much for school anyway. Being cramped into a building wasn't my style. I knew that it wasn't the best choice ever, but I liked my naps and working outside. I had a good job and learned everything I needed to know out here in the district, outside of a school. Plus, I wouldn't of been a very good student anyway due to my attitude. Sleeping and drinking didn't please teachers.

"Thank you Caritta," Sandra said to her, thankful for the killing of the girls to be stopped. "I knew someone would volunteer." To save her own skin that is.

As our escort walked to the reaping bowl, I knew what I had to do. I knew what had to be done. No more people then whoever gets called on now has to suffer. I just hope that the eighteen year old section doesn't get called again. And I've lost too many friends today, my worst fear came a live, three times in last minute, I don't want it to happen again. "Seventeen."

I didn't watch , and I tried to block out the sounds of the seventeen year olds screaming out in agony. I blocked out all the sounds by one, Amos. Amos was in there, and once again, my fear had came true. I've now lost people I cared about on both sides, and my heart felt like it might rip out of my chest.

I felt something rise from my stomach before I felt my insides blow out of mouth. My breakfast consisting of gruel and alcohol rushed out of my mouth, landed on the wall in front of me, and left an acidic taste in my mouth. This must be how the parents are feeling.

"I volunteer!" I shouted through my gasps. "I volunteer!"

Garret helped me to the cage door, where a peacekeeper with eyes more murderous then Scotch, escorted me to the stage.

I walked up the stage, and saw Caritta Desin, and I couldn't help but feel rage towards her.

I walked right past Sandra, and slammed a powerful right fist into Caritta's face, sending her to the ground.

Caritta Desin. What a laugh. All though I've only heard about her, I knew enough. She was quick tempered and sarcastic, like Jeana. But unlike Jeana, she didn't have a nice side and thought only of herself. Short sighted and naive, she understood nothing.

I could only look at her and think of how over half of the teenage girls in this district died because of her not volunteering soon enough. Why couldn't she of volunteered sooner? Did all the kids that picked on her finally exit her life and she decided to save herself? Knowing what I know about her, that's probably what happened.

She thought that those kids were monsters, that they deserved to die. Well all I got to say is, she's worse then all of them put together.

With all my fiery, through blurred eyes, I shouted at Caritta Desin at the top of my lungs. "CUUUUUUUUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNTT!"

**A/N: I can't believe it, after a major computer crash and losing everything I've worked on, I managed to type this all up in one day, now that's saying something. **

**I don't really know if I did the characters justice or not, but if I did them right, Adrian Colton is great to write for. Hell, I haven't liked a tribute this much since writing my last SYOT, and that's saying something.**

**You know, you people haven't been reviewing since I came off the hiatus, why is that? I think I know what it is but, did I do something to lose you all?**


	11. District 2

**District Two**

**Jeremiah Sentris's POV**

More. I've always needed to do more, be better, to become the best that I could possibly be and beyond. I guess that's why I'm running around the yard with an eighty pound sack of wet cement on my back.

Reaping day, a day of rest by maybe the rest of Panem, but here in District Two, it's anything but. We still go on with our lives like normal. Training, working, blasting, patrolling, building, whatever, we still do it. Even now, at seven in the morning, my sleeveless shirt and thin pants are soaked with rain and sweat.

"Your pathetic Jeremiah!" My father shouts at me with his ruthless coach like voice. "Getting tired already? You've only run twenty seven laps!" With a huge cement pack on my back in the rain while traveling through mud.

Our yard wasn't that big, but it wasn't exactly small either. In addition to that, I've been up since five in the morning doing these stupid training exercises of his. Dragging me out of bed before putting me to the grinder, he didn't even let me have breakfast before we started, all he said after he threw me out bed was to get dressed lightly and come outside in three minutes or less. Not only that, but he didn't care that it was raining heavily outside at that time.

My twelve year old sister was with us, but she was only carrying a fifteen pound backpack, and she had quit over half an hour earlier after running only ten laps. She was now doing repetitive sword techniques while father focused on me. "Pick up the pace and run!"

I was doing a steady jog, but it wasn't good enough for him, he wanted a run, but I couldn't run, my legs couldn't handle it. As they were, they were already in pain and still tired from what he put me through yesterday.

I kept on moving though, because he hated when I stopped, or even slowed down.

I felt the air I was breathing in and out rush painfully through my lungs as my legs burned so badly that I thought that they might snap at any moment.

I felt my legs slip on the wet ground, and there was nothing I could do to stop myself. Even if I had the strength, the eighty pound cement bag would of weighed me down and made me crash to the ground anyway. I tried anyway, and failed. Trying to stop myself only caused me to crash into the ground harder. A wave of pain rush through my face and back as I made contact with the ground.

Well, at least my legs were getting a break. "Get the fuck up Jeremiah!" My father shouted angrily.

I tried to get up, but I couldn't, I was too tired and my legs hurt.

"I'm not going to get up!" I shouted to my father. I didn't want to run anymore, it was stupid, the reapings were in three hours and if I wasn't fit to walk I'd get killed. Not that dad seemed to care, if you were fit to talk you were fit to do anything in his mind. "I don't want to spend reaping day running around with a wet sack of cement on my back as you shout at me!"

"What the fuck did you say to me?" He shouted as I heard his footsteps getting closer and closer to me. "I'm training you to be a victor! You think you can do that? Huh? You think that your good enough as you are? I'm going to tell you the truth, your not!"

"Better then you are." I told him, earning me a sharp kick to the side. I grunted as I took in the blow.

"Shut the fuck up punk." He snarled at me. "Now get up before you make me really hurt you."

"You can't hurt me." I challenged.

I then felt a heavy boot press on the back of my head, causing my head to sink slightly into the wet ground that was half mud. I couldn't breathe as dad pressed my face into the thick brown sludge. I tried to free myself, but I was too weak and dad was too heavy. I hated this, I hated his training, I hated his methods, I hated all of this.

I felt my body shutting down, but then dad released me before I felt myself passing out.

I lifted my head out of the mud and breathed in the fresh air. I knew that he wasn't going to kill me, but it sure felt like it.

"Well," My father said. "We're on the far side of the lawn, so I guess you can crawl back to the house if your too tired to continue." He then gave me another sharp kick to the side before I heard him walking away from me.

Damn it. I was on the far side of the lawn and I had to crawl through mud with aching legs, aching back, with little energy, no breakfast, and an eighty pound cement bag on my back. Fuck. The academy was hard on us and pushed us to train so that we could volunteer, but dad was worse then the harshest instructor at school. The instructors knew how to limit damage to our bodies, they pushed us but didn't try to kill us. Dad, he just didn't know when to quit. He's push us and push us and push us some more, then we'd collapse and he'd kick us and shout some more, telling us how pathetic we were and how we were never going to be victors.

Though, truth be told, there were times at the academy that rivaled dad in ruthlessness. Those were days that I never forgot.

**Victory Valentine's POV**

Fuck my mother's training, I didn't feel like doing it today, so I snuck out of the house while she was still asleep. Valley also didn't want to do training today, so she came along with me. How she was awake at four in the morning I don't know. She said that she couldn't sleep, but I don't know why she couldn't sleep. I didn't ask, the more we talked the more likely mom would wake up, and I didn't want her to know that I was out just yet.

Five in the morning, that's when mom wakes us up so that we can train before we head off to the academy to train and study. She's been doing that for as long as I remember, so it was easy to plan ahead.

Today's my final reaping day. At age eighteen I was going to go into the reapings one last time, and before that, I was going to have one last training session with mom before heading off. But I didn't want to train, I've been training since I was nine, I didn't need anymore training.

The skills that I had acquired were as good as they were ever going to get, four hours of training weren't going to improve them in anyway what so ever. And the things that I couldn't use? It's not like I'm going to improve with them in four short hours when I tried to develop my skills with them for half my life.

"What's mom going to say when she finds out that we've skipped her training session?" My sister asked me as we sat in a dinner that was open at all hours of the day. At this time of day, the only people that they'd be serving right now would be peacekeepers and late night workers and maybe the odd kid who decided to stay out late. But today, because it was reaping day, they were only serving us and some peacekeepers that weren't helping the Capitol folks setting up the stage in the center of the square.

"Don't know, don't care." I answered honestly as I sipped on a glass of black coffee. "Today is the day that mom's reign of terror ends and we can finally start living the way we want to."

"What do you mean?" My little sister asked me, curiosity filled her eyes. I knew that look on her face, she wanted to know and she wanted to know now.

I smiled as I told her, feeling a mixture of happniess, sadness, and anger inside.

"I'm going to volunteer," I told her. "And when I win, everything's going to change. The way mom treats us, our way of living, everything."

"So life'll get better?" My sister asked as I saw her smiling brightly.

"Yes." I told her happily. "Life will be so much better." No more training, no more worry, no more falling over from exhaustion, nothing like that would have to happen again.

Despite how mom acts around us, she can be reasonable at times, but only if it works in her favor. But that didn't matter now, I struck a deal with her that will benefit everyone in this family.

**Jeremiah Sentris's POV**

"Look on the bright side, my mom says, you'll be incredibly skilled and strong when you volunteer." I told my best friend, Preston Link, with an edge in my voice. "Not if I get killed first. I won't be able to do anything, then all my sacrifices will be for nothing. Everything I survived, everything that I've done, everything that I've been through, all for nothing."

"Well," Preston said. "Think about it this way, when you think your about to die, just think that those that left before you are going to beat you up so badly that you'll wish that you hadn't died." Well there was a thought.

"Yeah," I told him, thinking of those people. "And I wouldn't blame them either." If I died and met those people again, they'd want to do more then just beat me up, they'd want to do more, much more. "But I'm not them, so they're just going to have to wait for decades to come."

"That's the spirit." Perston cheerfully told me as we walked to the square.

It hadn't yet stopped raining, so the ground that we walked on had turned into mud and was threatening to take away my boots with each step. My sister, Abby, had already lost her left boot, and that caused her to get a free ride on my back. Even though I was still hurting from this morning's training exercise, I wasn't going to let my sister walk around in the ice cold mud with only one boot on.

As we continued to head to the square, my friend spoke up. "Telling you man, this year's Hunger Games are going to be the best ever."

"Why is that?" I asked.

"It's a quarter quell," He answered, like it was obvious. "That means it's not a normal Hunger Games." Yeah, everyone knows that. "I bet you that the twist was so horrible and so brutal that that's why President Blizzard decided to keep it a secret until the last second." That's a possibility.

"So what do you think it is?" I asked, wondering what he thought the secret reading of the card was. I hoped that it wasn't a forced reapings of twelve year olds, Abby was good with knives, but she wasn't ready for the arena yet. She wasn't ready to experience the things that they threw at you until it was too late.

"Don't know, don't care. As long as there's blood and killing I'm down with it."

Perston was a Hunger Games addict, but that came with him being a violent individual. I think he's borderline psychopathic. But considering what goes on in this district, I'm not really surprised, or am stupid enough to think that he's the only one of his kind. He's sane though, so he's not always in the violent mood or talks about bloodshed all the time. In fact, he's quite humorous at times.

"I should of guessed."

We continued to walk towards the square until we were in the line up with all the other kids. As we walked towards the sign in desk, Abby pointed something strange out.

Perston and I looked to where she was pointing, and saw huge black cages with white numbers stenciled on them. Age groups, in cages. Did the Capitol start to get sick of seeing us fight each other for the honor of volunteering?

"Those damn cages," Perston said with a bit of anger. "Now there won't be any fights to get to the stage." I guess that's all he's worried about, just the violent part of the show. But then I saw him smile. "Or maybe they draw an age group and they all have to go into the arena." With his beaming smile, I could tell that he'd really like that. A whole age group of two genders from twelve districts, that would be hundreds of kids murdering each other in the arena. The bloodbath would be huge. By the time day three of the games roll around, the arena would be covered with blood.

I hoped that that wasn't the case, there'd be too many people to take care of and it would take forever for the games to end. And if I got reaped, well, there was Perston to take care of, and it wouldn't be easy. And Abby...

"What are they for?" Abby asked, clearly not hearing what Perston had just said moment earlier.

"I don't know." I responded. This was a pain, what the hell was going on? I don't know.

I got to the sign in booth and started to sign in.

"Name?" The Capitol attendant asked in her monotone voice.

"Jeremiah Sentris." I answered.

"Age?"

"Seventeen."

"Tesserae?"

"None." I told them. Nobody needed Tesserae, so we didn't need to enter our names more times then we needed to. Plus, when you have a victor as a family member, you'd never have to worry about money ever again.

"Get to your age cage." She told me before I placed Abby down.

"Just answer all her questions," I told my sister who was signing in for the first time. "And when your done, just go to the cage marked twelve on the girl's side."

"Okay." Abby answered calmly, like it was no big deal, which it wasn't. I just wanted to make sure she knew what she was doing.

As I walked to the cage marked: 17, I hoped that they wouldn't call on the twelve year olds.

**Victory Valentine's POV**

Stupid Hunger Games, stupid Capitol people who don't even look at us unless we volunteer. To them, we're nothing until we're of us to them, which means we're in the games and giving them entertainment.

That Capitol lady didn't even recognize my last name, Valentine, and I'd think that she'd of recognized it because of my brother entering the games three years ago. But I guess losers of the games are of no use to them either.

The Capitol allowed him to die, they let that girl, Creek Drake kill him and let her win. He was a good fighter, but the Capitol doesn't just care about who's the better fighter, they also care about how you present yourself and how good you look. Vlad wasn't good looking, but Creek was, and that was how she won instead of him. Vlad was a better fighter, strong then her, more skilled with a sword then she was with a spear, but she won instead.

When the pack of mutts came in the final six, they killed two tributes, one of which was a loser from Twelve, and the other was my brother. And unlike the District Twelve loser, Vlad wasn't missing a leg. Guess the Capitol didn't want Creek to meet her end, so they killed my brother, the only one who could stand up to her. Creek easily won after Vlad's demise.

But I was confident about myself, I'm as skilled as Vlad was at killing, and I've got good looks that the Capitol will admire. From what I've heard from people, I might be on par with District One girls. Long curly brown hair, blue eyes, and an athletic body from all the training that I've gone through over the course of half my life. I'm strong and good looking, a combination that would give me the advantage to win the games.

I rubbed my fingers on the twin dogs that hung around my neck, asking my brother for strength as I walked into the eighteen year old cage with all the other girls.

I feared situations like this, being trapped in small spaces that were inescapable. Actually, just small spaces in general. It made me shake and make me want the reapings to hurry up and allow me to volunteer so that I could get out of this cage soon.

"Hello District Two!" Our escort shouted happily into the microphone, allowing her voice to be heard to all. "Welcome to the tenth quarter quell and may the odds be over in your favor!"

Yes yes, hurry up, I want to get out of this cage. "Now, as you all know, the reading of the card was kept a secret from all of you, and I assure you, these cages have a part to play in this as well as Panem's skyrocketing population." Shut up and draw a card! I hate it in here and I want this done before someone else can volunteer before me. If I didn't get to volunteer, all my plans would fall apart in a second. "Now without further ado, let's draw from the reaping bowls."

Finally!

"I volunteer!" I shouted, wanting to get out of the cage and to make the deal with my mother active.

"Fourteen!" The escort shouted anyway. I then heard screaming come from behind me. I looked back and saw the peacekeepers pull out machetes and start stabbing the girls in the fourteen year old cage.

The peacekeepers hesitated, but then one by one, the young girls inside fell down dead with red stains on their neck, chest, or head. They kept on stabbing until there was nobody left alive in the cage.

What the fuck was that? Why were they stabbing them? Why the fuck would the Capitol do something like that? Our lives really meant nothing to the Capitol unless we had something to offer them, and even then we were disposable.

I held the dog tags around my neck tightly thinking about how I wanted the Capitol out of my life once and for all. "I believe we had a volunteer." Our escort said to us, still with that stupid cheerful voice of hers. People in our district just got killed in front of her, and she just carries on like normal? Fuck her! "Someone bring her up."

A peacekeeper unlocked my cage and I quickly got out of there. Not too quickly though, I didn't want the Capitol to think that I was some sort of wuss that was scared of closed spaces.

I confidently walked up the stage, or at least tried to look confident as I walked, until I got onto the stage. "What's your name dear?" Our escort asked in her happy voice. It made me want to punch her in the face and stomp on her face. But I held it in, I wouldn't be able to get the Capitol to like me if I threw a fit.

"Victory Valentine." I told her, like I'd rather be no where else but here. And that was half true, I wanted to be here, but at the same time, I didn't. "Take a hint from my name, I'm going to come back victorious."

"I'm sure you will Victory." The escort happily told me before she walked over to the boy's reaping bowl.

I looked over to my father, who didn't even try to make eye contact with me, even though he was only ten feet away or so. I couldn't blame him either, as the head peacekeeper, he wasn't supposed to have kids, or a wife. But everyone in the district kept the Capitol in the dark about that. If there's one thing that District Two is good for it's loyalty, everyone stuck together. My mother though, that was something else completely.

A guy shouted

"I volunteer!" Before a peacekeeper unlocked the seventeen year old cage and escorted the boy to the stage.

As he got closer, I recognized him and remembered some of the things I heard about him.

"What's your name dear?" Our escort asked him.

"Jeremiah Sentris." He answered.

Standing at six foot two, with very short brown hair, blue eyes, freckles on his cheeks all on light brown skin and a muscular body, I could tell that he was going to be a serious competitor. And from what people have said about him, he's as strong, if not stronger, then he looks. Though really, he'd have no chance against me. I could easily throw a knife right between his eyes before he even knew what I was up to.

He may of killed people, but that didn't mean shit to me. I could kill people too, but so could everyone else my age and younger.

Jeremiah Sentris, I'm sorry to say this, but you've come in way over your head. I've got to win, for not only my sake, but for my sister's as well.

Vlad always tried to protect us, and right now, all I have left is Valley, and I just can't stand to see her suffer anymore.

**A/N: Well, that's District Two, and nobody's answered my question. Really guys, someone goes on a hiatus and suddenly you stop reading? Last time I ever tell anyone I'm going on a hiatus. (Not really.)**

**Anyway, this isn't really my best chapter, but that being said, one more district to go before it's Capitol time.**


	12. District 9

**District Nine**

**Wren Sylvia Hayes's POV**

Dressing for the reapings. It seems that my mom is more worried about the things I wear more then I do. She picked through clothes that were both mine and hers, some used and some old, some were mine while some were from her childhood.

She mixed and matched items of clothing before getting me to wear them and show them off in front of her to see if they'd pass her approval. Most of them didn't, as she'd say that they weren't good enough.

"Can't we just pick our own clothes for one mom?" My sister, Aspen, asked with impatience in her voice. "We've been trying on pieces of clothes for nearly an hour now, ever since we finished breakfast, and you still haven't found the perfect thing yet."

I wasn't going to argue with that, mom was very fussy about things, and I didn't really like standing around here for hours on end to get the perfect dress for an event that would last only an hour at most. Still, she was my mom and she wanted the best for us.

"A lady has to dress properly for the occasion." My mom told my sister and I, again. "I won't let the two of you become irresponsible grown ups that can't do anything yourselves."

"I'll just dress in these clothes and it'll be good enough." Aspen said as she lifted up a pair of brown pants and a black shirt.

"No you will not." My mom said to her with some edge in her voice. "Those clothes aren't proper and lady like. Now put those down and come back here unless you want to look poor and desperate. And you can also count your privileges gone if you don't cooperate."

Aspen huffed before she put the clothes down and walked back beside me.

Mom was strict with us as she always wanted us to grow up to be like her, lady like and such. She thought that it was for the better, so that we could behave properly and look that way so that we could attract someone in our lives that would take care of us.

She always said to us, 'you aren't going to find someone by behaving and acting like little children.' And while that may be true, her lessons were only half the battle.

Aspen looked around the room, trying to spot something that would get mom's approval, but from the way she was frowning at each and every item she looked at, I could tell that she wasn't finding anything that could speed this up.

While we didn't have much, we still had a selection to choose from, we weren't rich, but we weren't poor either, we were right in the middle. And while it was good to not be as hungry as the people in the poor sections of the district, we were always struggling to meet ends meet. We always managed though, somehow.

"Can't Wren try some of my clothes?" Aspen asked, desperate to hurry this along. "She seems to of tried on all of her own clothes, and yours."

Even though I was too years older then my thirteen year old sister, she was as tall as our mom, who was four inches taller then I was. Not that it was a big accomplishment, I was five foot nothing, I was a very small person. Though it did mean that instead of my clothes being passed down to her, her clothes were being passed down to me. Though I occasionally do get a new shirt or pair of pants once in a while.

"Hadn't thought of that, thanks Aspen." My mother replied before Aspen gave out a smile towards me, which I then returned. Hopefully, her suggestion was going to get us out of here. Not that I didn't like being here with mom and Aspen, but, an hour of just standing around and waiting for mom to pick something out while explaining how important it was again and again, couldn't we be doing something else?

**Trim Fetching's POV**

"I'm going to volunteer." I told my friend, Sapphire Spectre, as we walked to the square.

"What?" She asked surprised by my sudden revel. "Why?"

"I'm going to restore my family's honor." I told her, not wanting to walk around the truth. I told her it, plain and simple, I wasn't going to lie to her, she was going to find out anyway.

"But," She said confused. "Your family hasn't done anything."

"That's the reason," I said as I thought of my brother. "We haven't done anything."

My brother, Jackson, got reaped last year, and died. Got killed in the bloodbath by getting a knife in the neck by the District Two girl. Ever since then, my family has been shamed by his death.

We were the most well off family in District Nine, we had most of the public support us, but when Jackson died, we lost honor, respect. Now I was going to get it back, through the barbaric Hunger Games, I was going to win our honor back.

I got up to the sign in table and the Capitol lady asked me the same questions she asked every year.

"Name?" She asked.

"Trim Fetching." I answered.

"Age?"

"Seventeen."

"Tesserae?"

"None." Not that we needed it, being the mayor's son had it's benefits.

"Proceed to the cage with your age number on it." The Capitol lady instructed me.

I turned towards the black steel cages with thick, hard plastic bordering the outside and started to walk towards them.

"This doesn't have anything to do with your father does it?" Sapphire asked me with concern.

"This has nothing to do with my father." I told her.

**Wren Sylvia Hayes's POV**

All these people, such a large crowd, and we're so close to each other. I was shaking from that. I didn't like large crowds, I preferred a little group of maybe three or four people, but hundreds of kids all packed next to me? I didn't like it. I feared it. What if someone asks me something? I'll have to respond and maybe say something stupid. I hoped that nobody would ask me something, I didn't want to look like an idiot in front of all these kids, some of which were in my class.

Nobody seemed to even be looking at me, all of them talking to their friends about how confused they were about these cages they were holding us all in. I suspected that it must be part of the quarter quell, something was going to happen and it would heavily involve these cages. Or maybe they just got sick of kids running away when their names got called.

I listened in on some of the conversations around me, and I wished that I didn't, some were saying that the quell was to draw an age group and have them all go into the arena. That meant that there was a one in seven chance that either Aspen or I would get reaped. I didn't like those odds, they were even worse inside and out of the arena.

Hundreds, if not thousands, of kids in the arena, fighting to the death. And Aspen and I had higher chances of getting picked this year. It was frighteningly close how one of us could get picked.

Another group said that it was to stop kids from running away, another group said that it was to stop us from volunteering, I hoped it was one of those two and one of the other two.

"Hello there District Nine!" Our escort shouted out happily on the stage. "I'm sure your all wondering what the cages are for, but don't worry, those cages are for your own protection, more or less." Hopefully, but I doubted it, it was to keep us from running away. Or at least the person who was getting reaped. "Now, because of Panem's rising population and the drawing of the card, your about to find out what these cages are for."

She then walked over to the girl's reaping bowl and picked out a piece of paper, one of seven.

Please don't be thirteen or fifteen, I prayed. I didn't want either me or Aspen to go into the arena. "Fourteen."

Oh thank God, I thought. We hadn't gotten picked, but those fourteen year olds, now they were going to have to fight it out in the arena.

I turned to look at the fourteen year old section, only to see a black swarm inside the cage. The black swarm was moving about in a thick mass, consuming almost everything inside.

It wasn't until moments later that I saw that the black mass was a swarm of flies, and that they were eating the girls inside the fourteen year old cage. They stripped the flesh off their skin until there was nothing left except the whites of their bones.

Normal flies couldn't of done it that fast or that effectively, so it was Capitolly modified mutts made by the Capitol to be released on those that were picked. "Any volunteers?" Our escort asks.

Flies. Capitolly modified flies that'll eat you to death in such a painful way that you'll wish for it to be over. The games were horrifying, kids my age, some a little older, some a little younger, were killed in the most brutal ways for the sake of entertainment. And now, they were killed in the reapings, they weren't even given a chance. At least in the arena they have a chance.

Aspen, if her name gets picked she won't even have a chance of getting out of here. If she gets killed and I'm still alive, I would of done nothing to help her. I had to do something.

I suddenly find myself on the stage next to our escort. "And what's your name young lady?" She asks.

I found myself a little dumbstruck by how I suddenly found myself here, of all places. Wasn't I just in one of the cages below? I'm here now, so that could only mean one thing, I volunteered .

"Wren Sylvia Hayes." I told her, feeling the anxiety build up inside of me as I spoke. I never did like speaking, even to a little group, and now I was supposed to talk in front of the entire district?

"I'm sorry, could you repeat that?" The escort asked.

Oh no, I must of said it too quietly for them to hear it. Now I had to repeat it.

"Wren Sylvia Hayes." I repeated, but louder this time.

"Welcome Wren Sylvia Hayes"

Oh good, I said it loud enough. I didn't want to have to do that again.

Our escort then walked over to the boys reaping bowl before picking out a number. "Sixteen."

I didn't look at the sixteen year old cage, instead, I looked over at the crowd of adult, some were crying, some were horrified, others were just silent. "And what's your name young man?" I heard the escort say.

"Trim Fetching." He answered.

Fetching, isn't that the mayor's last name? Was this his son? His other son?

With light brown hair, deep sea blue eyes, and a tall and strong body, he looked like a younger version of last year's District Nine male tribute and the mayor himself. He had to be his son. "Shake hands you two." Our escort told us.

I slowly extended my hand towards him as he quickly grabbed my hand with his. I felt like pulling it away, but I didn't, just barley though, that would of been rude, and mom always said to not be rude to strangers, no matter how much you don't like them.

Thinking back to my volunteering, I was going into the games, but I didn't regret it, because Aspen wasn't.

**Trim Fetching's POV**

As I looked at the girl in front of me, I tried to think of who she was. Dirty blond, shoulder length hair parted to the left, dark brown eyes surrounded by thick eyelashes, a big nose, pale skin, and all on a very tiny body.

I've never seen her in my life, nor do I think I've ever hear of her. Wren Sylvia Hayes. Never heard that name before.

Good. She was a nobody, a nobody that I didn't know. That made it so much easier for me to cope with seeing her dead.

**A/N: Lazy writer equals lazy chapter. At least the reapings are done with. Well, I'm never doing that again, that's what this SYOT has taught me. Fuck reapings, I'm doing something else. **

**It's over! The reapings are finally over!**

**Next up, some Capitol chapters before the arena.**


	13. Capitol matters

**Conrad Blizzard's POV**

There were things that I didn't understand, but I was going to find them out soon enough.

I stood beside my father. My sick, dying father who was just about ready to pass over. Despite doing everything the Capitol could do to preserve his life, there was a limit on how long someone could live. At ninety eight years old, I supposed that it was a good life span that he got.

The IV tubes that were in his arms, neck, feed him life, but they were only delaying his death. After all, father didn't even look like he should be alive. His skin a deathly pale colour with blood shot eyes that seemed to bulge out of his eyes, and his entire body, shaking slightly, only noticeable if you looked closely, but shaking neither the less. His breathing, weak and rasp. His body, ice cold. His mind, while still able, it wasn't half of what it was even a year ago. But father was a genius, and even on his deathbed he, just in my own opinion, was smarter then the average civilian.

"Father," I asked him, not wanting to waste any time just in case he passed away in a moment's notice. "What the fuck was with this year's reapings? Did you really draw a card that said to kill an age group? Is there really such a rise in the population that it justified the killing of thousands?"

"No." My father's gasping voice told me. "And yes."

"No and yes." I sighed, frustrated at what could come from his decision. "Do you realize what you've done? The districts won't stand for this." They'd want revenge. It wasn't the way we did the reapings, and they hated the way we took away twenty four of their own on regular reaping days. Now we killed much more then that, how did they feel now?

"I've killed. Capitol people as. Well." My father told me, taking in a deep breath after every second or third word.

"Well they won't know that," I told him, now thinking of all the Capitol people that he killed. He obviously kept the home front killings more quiet, otherwise I'd of known about it and people would be storming our home at this moment. "And what do you mean you killed Capitol?" I asked, alarmed that he'd kill the people at home. I knew that he killed people, even our own, but why and how many? "How and why? Did they really need to be killed father?"

"Population. Control." He simply told me.

Population control. If he killed everyone in the thirteen parts of this country, then there really must be a spike in the population. But still, we didn't have that many, did we?

"How come I don't know about this? Who have you killed here and how will this affect us? Won't people find out sooner or later before breaking down our doors and demanding the surrender of this family?"

All my father did was give out a weak smile, almost like he wanted to laugh.

"If anything. They should thank. Me. The only people. That I. Got rid of. Here. Were useless. Drunks and homeless. Those in dept. Parasites."

One side of me was saying 'good job father.' Those homeless bums were a real pain in the ass to deal with, always asking for money and wanting a free place to stay. More then half of them were drunks that terrorized the public. There were also those in dept, or the ones that were poor by their standards, the ones that didn't have a big enough house or those that complained about lack of avoxes or those who were almost out of money. They were just as much of a pain as well, because some of them turned to criminal activity, putting others at harm if they turned to violent crime. The worst ones were the ones in dept that refused to either live with themselves in recovery homes with the drunks and druggies that wanted to get clean again, or pay their dept off by becoming a peacekeeper. They were always a pain.

The other part of me said 'these are your own people.' And while the districts had my sympathy, the Capitol was my home.

"I estimate you exterminated at least two thousand people." I told the dying figure in the bed. "Why? What did the card say?" If the card did indeed say to kill an age group, then fine, there was nothing he could of done to stop that. But what if it didn't?

"In order. For Panem. To remember. Who controls them. The president. Shall choose. What happens. To them."

"And why that?" I asked, pointing to the television in front of him showing the re-run of the District Eleven killings. "Why'd you choose to kill all those kids? And don't give me any of that population control bull shit unless you can really back it up."

All my father did was wheeze and smile at me, like I couldn't understand a word he was telling me. It irritated me. I may not be as smart as him or have his in site on things in this world but I was far from stupid and ignorant.

"Population control." My father repeated. "Too many. People. Not enough. Resources." Was it really? Because we seemed to be doing pretty damn well. And what of the consequences?

"Did you think of the rebels?" I asked, wondering if he had any thought beyond the food and population, if there really was a problem with all that. "About our people noticing the missing people? How they'd feel about the massacre? About how the tributes will act here in the Capitol? About anything beyond the short term loss and gain?"

"Yes." My father breathed harshly.

"Not very far you didn't." I told him before turning my back on him.

There was no use talking to him, he looked at me like I was lost, like I couldn't understand anything. I didn't need that right now. I think old age finally got to my father when he drew that quarter quell card and he made a fatal mistake. He had doomed us all, and for what? Nothing, that's what. Sure he fight of solved some problems, but not all of them.

"Where's Arcane?" He asked.

Arcane, my brother, his other son. The one who was always different.

"He's on his way." I told him. "He won't be back for a while." Knowing where he was traveling from, he wouldn't be here for a long while. About a day or so. I just hoped that he'd get here before father passed away.

**Myles Blizzard's POV**

I watched my son step out of my room with anger and confusion. He couldn't understand why I had chosen to kill all those kids and he didn't want to understand. Conrad was smart, but he wasn't thinking of the full picture, all he could think of was that I had created a mob of angry district folks that'll start a rebellion because of my decision.

What he didn't see was that they wouldn't, and couldn't start a rebellion even if they wanted to.

There was a reason that I choose this very twist for the tenth quarter quell, and it hadn't come to me in a day, or a week, or even a month. It took several months of thinking on what the perfect quarter quell for this quarter century would be, and it hadn't come easy.

There were things that my sons didn't want to hear from me, and I knew that my excuse for burning, electrocuting, shooting, and all around killing district kids and Capitol folks was one of them. They didn't want to hear it now, but they'd understand soon enough. And if they didn't, well, I made a recording of why I choose to destroy the district youths and the worthless Capitol parasites. Whether they choose to listen to it or not was their choose.

**A/N: This went a lost smother in my head.**

**To Dani Wicken: Dear God the reapings. I plan to write from all the tribute's POV at least once in the Capitol. I'm sorry to say this, but I'm not very good at spelling or grammar, and I don't have word, I have notepad, and I use internet spell check which is a bitch to handle. Also, I really don't like that I'm not a walking thesaurus either.**

**Anyway, thanks for saying that this is some good work, and I'm sorry for making you cringe a lot. If you like this story and want to continue reading it, be prepared to cringe even more. Though I'll try to keep it as minimum as possible, but don't count on spelling and grammar being too much better.**


	14. Chariots

**District Three's Kendrick Reeves's POV**

Caia Wicken. She's the one that convinced me to get her to pop my fingers back into place.

She said that I should snap my fingers back into place, but I told her that it wasn't going to work, because you can't snap broken fingers back together. She replied that they were only dislocated, that they could be fixed with some will power, strength, and some pain. I didn't want to believe her, getting joints dislocated didn't hurt that much, and that peacekeeper wouldn't go half assed to make me suffer. Despite trying to tell her that they were broken, Caia kept on insisting that they were only dislocated and that she could fix them. She just wouldn't give up and kept on telling me that the way they were bent told her that they weren't injured as seriously as they really were.

She then told me that if they were truly broken, then the Capitol would fix them once we got there, but if they weren't, she'd be able to fix them and there'd be no more problems. I couldn't argue with that, if she messed up and they were broken the Capitol would fix them, but if she wasn't wrong, then it would be fixed and there'd be nothing more to worry about.

It also didn't help that she kept on pestering me for her to go through with it. She was stubborn that girl, but she was smart, and logical. Even if she was a bit annoying being someone who seems to be a know it all and someone who doesn't want to be proved wrong. Just like people said about her.

Still, she was nice.

"How are you feeling?" My stylist, a short man who's skin was a dark blue like colour mixed with shades of black and grey.

"Better then I was yesterday." I told him while looking at the three middle fingers in my right hand and thought of how much it hurt when that peacekeeper had dislocated them, and how much it hurt when Caia had popped them back into place. Strange thing was, it hurt more with Caia then it did with the peacekeeper. "I had a bad accident, but I'm feeling better now, even though pain is still throbbing through me."

"Oh yes, some of us noticed that your fingers were on slightly odd angles," He said as he continued to make last minute adjustments to my chariot costume. "What happened? You fall or something?"

"I got into a fight." I told him. "A fight that I couldn't win."

"I'm sure you had a reason for getting into it." He assured me.

"I did." I told him. But did I truly need to do it? Not really. But that's all in the past now, time to focus on winning over the Capitol.

I was already on a good path, because I had an ally with me, Caia. Having her fix me up was just what convinced me to have her as an ally, she was smart and good at planning. She could come up with the plans while I fended off attacks.

We could make it far together.

Still, we had to get along together for however long we were going to form our alliance, and for that, she'd have to learn some people skills. She wasn't shy or anything, it's just that she wanted things done her way and was unable to see my feelings for her methods. Either that or she simply didn't care about them.

If she was going cooperate, she'd have to learn to respect my feelings as well. I'm sure she doesn't really mean to be a jerk, but if she continues to act like a bitch at times, then I'm not sure I can stand being around her.

I hope I can at least make her more cooperative.

**District Six's Colton Mullican's POV**

Nobody came to say goodbye to me, not that it was very surprising. I may of lived with Amy and Kyle but I was nothing to them, just someone to do their work. To the kids in the district, all I was was some sort of freak. Someone to push around and call names and make fun of. So I didn't expect anyone to come and see me, and if someone did come to see me, I think all they'd tell me was to go and die.

Ungrateful jerks, I volunteered and saved them all from being incinerated and I was still nothing to them. No thanks or anything. I bet if anyone but me volunteered they'd be getting all sorts of praise from everyone.

I looked over to my district partner and thought of the people who might of came to thank for for saving them. I bet the slut that everyone hates got thanks from people for saving them, forgetting all about Colton Mullican who saved the other boys from being burned alive by the peacekeepers.

The chariots rolled out and soon we were in the open, the Capitol was looking down on us, cheering for us. Well, for others anyway. This was all an act though, I knew, because there was a time when they'd walk by me when I was in a cage and laugh and point at me and call me an odd boy.

I could thank my mom and dad, my real parents, for that since they sold me to the circus. They didn't want me because they found out what I was going to be, and the circus was short on attractions, so they had no problem taking me in.

The Capitol really had nothing better to do, so I was a main attraction for them when the Hunger Games weren't going on.

The circus was where I lived for the first ten years of my life, getting used by the stage master and working like a slave for whatever scraps that our masters didn't want. And since they hardly feed my colleges or I, we fought for the scraps of food they threw at us. That's how I learned to run, I would run to the scraps and take something, anything, but only one or two items, because if I took anymore I'd get the other so called freaks to chase after me. I couldn't beat them in a fight, so I didn't even try.

I didn't get the most food, but at least I didn't walk away with nothing, like some did. That's how I survived, until I started 'disturbing the peace.' Apparently telling people that your not a freak is considered disturbing the peace and enough to get you sold to someone else. That's how I ended up with Amy and Kyle.

I was a freak where ever I went. The Capitol, District Six, I was the same in either place, all because I was short.

Did they recognize me now? Do they recognize that short boy behind the circus cage that they made fun of? Six years is a long time for them, they probably have forgotten about me by now. Not that it matters, they'll be talking about me way behind my back for the next few days anyway, whether they remember me or not.

Just like the other kids in front of me, Adrienne beside me, and the kids behind me, we were the main attractions now as we wore these stupid costumes while parading around the Capitol.

We were nothing but the entertainment for them, and I was going to be a laughing stock yet again because of my size. They'd tell me I'd have no chance of winning, that I simply couldn't match up to the others.

Well I show all of them that they were wrong about me, that I was just some weird, crazy freak in a cage. I'll show them that I'm just like the rest of them. When I win, they'll finally think of me as an equal. I'll show my real parents that it was a mistake to give me up.

**A/N: Well guys, don't expect the best of quality since I have no idea what I'm going to be doing for the Capitol chapters. Hell, I planned most of the reapings and have plans for the arena, but I'm at a blank for the Capitol. I'm guessing that they'll also be short.**


	15. Training day 1

**Training day 1**

**District Five's Jamie Paradis POV**

As soon as the head training supervisor broke us off from each other after explaining the various types of stations that we could learn from, the careers were hard at work showing off their skills. That is, except the District One male and the District Four female. Selene was just looking at the knives in front of her while Mershade wasn't doing anything besides watching and staring into space.

I felt like doing what he was doing, which consisted of doing nothing. The whole getting ready for the games felt a little too close to home for my tastes. It reminded me of the days when my dad would forcefully place a wooden weapon in my hands and tell me to beat a post with it until he determined that I had done enough.

But nothing was ever good enough for my dad, I could beat a post until my weapon broke and it still wouldn't be good enough to him. He'd then rant on and on about how fucking useless I was and how I'd die in the bloodbath if I didn't improve quickly. I didn't care though, because the second he left me I'd get away from our secret training location and go into town. I didn't care about training or becoming a victor. I wasn't his tool to be used in his rage of jealousy. He could beat me around as much as he wanted, but it didn't make me want to train any longer or better.

The careers probably took the same kind of punishment I did, but they took their training seriously. Aside from Calamity and Selene, the rest of the careers were experts in their choice of weapons and demonstrated that with ease. Though those two could also be experts, they weren't demonstrating it .

It got me thinking that maybe if I put some effort into actually learning them that I'd be as good as them. Until yesterday, I never thought that I was going to go into the games, the chances of me getting reaped were slim, and the chances of me volunteering were non-existent until they started to call names and they threw in canisters of deadly orange smoke.

That smoke killed people, and that's what got Elizabeth to volunteer before she was executed by our head peacekeeper for being a wannabe rebel. God knows how her parents must feel, especially her dad since he's part of the peacekeeping force.

During the goodbyes, he didn't shed any tears, he told me that he couldn't with the other peacekeepers standing outside. Rules for peacekeepers was that they weren't allowed to have kids, they weren't even allowed girlfriends or sexual relationships. But her dad managed to bribe his way into having a family, having money and such.

He knew me, and I told him that I was going win for her and my cousin, Kaylee, who also died by the chemical fog. I didn't have a token of my own, so he gave me his daughter's taser, telling me that she'd of wanted me to have it now.

The taser was cleverly disguised, but he told me that while it could fool ordinary people like me, it might not fool Capitol peacekeepers and it would definitely not be able to fool district peacekeepers.

I was about to ask him what was the difference from a Capitol peacekeeper and a district peacekeeper when his time ran out. Weren't all peacekeepers from the Capitol?

I didn't think about it too much and just left the taser in my Capitol room, where I'd be staying for the next four nights.

I slacked off at home, but now I needed to get serious if I was going to win for Elizabeth and Kaylee and everyone else I cared about.

There were two choices. One, I could try and learn by myself. Or two, I could take the day off and ask one of my mentors what I should do to improve.

Well, dad's training didn't help me, so I guess I'll learn by myself.

**District Eight's Vida Rosalyn Harkle's POV**

"Quit showing off you bastard!" I told my ally as he continued to swing his weapon with ease while I just swung it left, right, down and center. "Your making me look bad."

"That's because you are bad at it." He replied with a sort of smug look on his face. "Your making yourself look bad." That smile of his, it irritated me, the way he looked at me like I was something to laugh at. I'll show him that I wasn't bad, I was just getting used to what I was holding.

"How's this then?" I challenged as I started to swing the weapon around harder and faster. Being strong was a huge advantage when swinging around weapons, this wouldn't be any different. Swing fast and swing hard, that's all there was to this.

I saw his eyes following the blade as I moved it around as fast and powerfully as I could.

Ha, check this out, I'm seriously skill with weapons. Forget the training that the careers had to go through, I could be as good as them without the years of practice. My athletic ability made me just as good as them, even if I could do all those fancy maneuvers with weapons I could swing just as hard and fast as they could.

Looking at my ally, I could tell that he was impressed with what I was doing, he couldn't keep his eyes off of it. I was not someone to laugh at. "Ha ha! You spoke too soon, I can see that your clearly impressed with my weapon ship. I haven't even practiced with it and this is how good I am. You better believe that I'm a natural a-"

All of a sudden, he lifted his weapon and knocked my arms away with what seemed to be an effortless strike.

"Your attacks are full of holes." He told me as he faked a yawn. "Swinging around wildly does not equal skill, no matter how fast you are." I was wrong, he wasn't impressed, he thought that I was horrible.

"Like you could do any better." I challenged. He might be from District Seven, but I bet he couldn't do what I just did. He was all talk, he was bluffing. He couldn't swing as fast or as powerfully as I could, I knew he couldn't.

"I know how to use an ax, do you?" He asked, looking at me like I was stupid, which I wasn't.

"Of course I do!" I told him. Even a baby knows how to use a weapon! "The sharp bladed end goes into the enemy." Easy. Simple. You don't need to be a career to know that. "What? You didn't know that? Everyone knows that you have to swing at the thing you want to cut, slash, or destroy."

He looked at me for a second.

"Your an idiot, you know that?"

An idiot! I'm not an idiot! Like he should be talking like a know it all when he wasn't.

"Oh yeah!" I shouted at him. "Would an idiot be able to defeat you at axes District Seven!"

I swung my ax down at him with all my might, but he managed to move out of the way before stomping his foot on the ax handle, forcing my hands to let go of it before he slammed the blunt side of the ax on top of my head, causing pain to radiate across my head.

"Don't fucking attack me bitch!"

"I'll attack whoever the fuck I WANT!" I told him before I upper cutted him as hard as I could, causing him to drop his ax. "I'm not scared of you!"

I had taken on people like him before, cocky little pricks who think that they're tough but really weren't. This guy was no different.

As he staggered back I quickly got back to my feet and delivered another punch to his face. He turned slightly from the force of my punch, before I felt a wave of pain hit me across the face.

I could take hits, and apparently, he could too, he wasn't going to be a push over like my escort was. I bet he was thinking that as well, that I wasn't as weak as his escort.

"And you choose to attack me you racist white trash!" He shouted before he slammed another fist into the side of my head.

"If anyone's a racist it's you for bringing that up blackie!" I shouted at him as I hit him again.

"That the best you can come up with chalk face!" As another wave of pain arrived on my face.

"See this tan!?" I shouted at him. "No? Have a closer look!" I then slammed my fist into his face again.

"That's enough!" The ax trainer shouted before he got in between us.

I wasn't done yet! He started this fight and I'm finishing it!

I tried to go around him, but suddenly, peacekeepers started to arrive on the scene and they started to grab the boy I was attacking. I also felt arms being wrapped around me and then getting pulled away from both my ally and the training instructor. "The both of you are excused from the training room as of today! Your here to learn, not fight each other."

"Now look at what you did bitch!" The District Seven boy shouted angrily.

"Shut you you jackass!" I shouted to him. "Your the one who started it! If you didn't act so superior this wouldn't of happened! You haven't heard the last of Vida Rosalyn Harkle!"

"And you haven't heard the last of Timber Carther!" He shouted. At least I knew his name now. Now I knew who owed me a fight.

**District Six's Adrienne Quintus's POV**

Watching Timber and Vida getting dragged away from each other by the peacekeepers reminded me heavily of my mother and I saying our goodbyes.

Mom came in and said to me, 'good job saving all those children, Adrianna.'

As soon as those words came out of her I got pissed off at her. When she said those words, she didn't in the least seem sad or anything, like she couldn't care less. Whether she didn't care about me or the other kids were up for debate, but I think she didn't care about me and the other kids who meet a fiery end.

Her monotonic voice told me that she really was the heartless bitch that I always thought of her to be. And in addition to that, she got my name wrong. How could anyone not know their own kid's name? I've been with her for the past sixteen years and she hadn't even bothered to learn my name? It's almost like someone else gave me my name instead of her.

I was so enraged at her that I hit her across the face. In retaliation, my mother hit me across the face. So I hit her again, then she hit me a second time.

We continued to hit each other until a couple of peacekeepers dragged her out and kept me away from her.

I knew I wasn't like my mother. She willingly gave herself to men, I didn't.

I cared for others, she didn't.

But how much different we were didn't occur to me until after she was dragged out of my sight. I was nothing like her. But being the daughter of a slut made everyone think that I was.

The last thing I shouted to her? 'My name's Adrienne you slut!'

Up until then, I hardly acknowledged her existence in front of her since I turned five, when I learned about her ways of making easy money. But when I shouted that to her, it felt so liberating it was lifting. Just calling her a slut summed up everything that was wrong with my life. Why my life sucks, why everyone makes fun of me, and just plain why I'm an outcast.

Without Maria and Taylor, who knows what I'd be right now. Like my mom? I don't think so, but I'd probably of gone insane, and I fear that if I do go insane I'll be put down by a bullet or suffer mental trauma and suffocate myself in despair.

Maria and Taylor saved me from that fate, and I saved other kids and adults from that fate. I couldn't save all of them, but I saved some.

I looked at the crudely made leather bracelet made of scrap leather with a small metal charm on it that I got from a little girl less then half my age and remembered that someone was indeed thankful for my efforts in saving them.

She handed me the bracelet, said, 'thanks for saving my brother.' She then hugged me, then left as quickly as she came.

I felt wonderful, and the only people who had ever done that to me was Maria and Taylor. Maybe, just maybe, people started to see that I wasn't what they thought I was.

**A/N: Well, I didn't know how to start chapter, so I guess I'll just let the computer randomly choose who I'm going to write about in each chapter and go from there.**

**Warning, bad Capitol chapters ahead. Maybe they'll get better. Maybe. Don't worry though, the arena chapters will be better.**

**Capitol chapter three out of eight is complete.**


	16. Training day 2

**Training day 2**

**District Ten's Tanner Hart's POV**

"Watch where your going ugly!" A boy shouted angrily at me.

I was walking towards the hand to hand combat station to learn how to fight, only for this dumbass to run into me like a fucking blind person. I was excited to get to that station and I guess I wasn't watching where I was going.

"You watch where your going you piece of cow pie!" I replied nastily to him, only for me to feel the familiar feeling to a fist hit the side of my face. Damn, now I was going to have to fight. I didn't want to because of what Tarbh told me before I hopped on the train. 'Try not to get everyone to hate you.' She told me that. 'Don't try to walk into fights.' She told me that as well. And yesterday, I succeeded in doing just that.

"You walked into ME you bastard, not the other-" He started, but quickly shut up when I kneed him in the stomach.

Ha! Not so tough are you!

"That's for hitting me you fuck tard!"

I felt him slam a fist into my stomach.

"You hit me first shit skin!"

Ha! Shit skin, that was funny. "The fuck you laughing about shit waffle?" HA HA HA HA HAAA! I found myself rolling around on the ground from what he said. Shit waffle, that was hilarious. Shit skin, shit waffle! HA HA HA HA HAAA! "Are you high on something?" He shouted. "Are you laughing at me you pile of crap!"

"Fucking. Stop!" I laughed as I held my sides with both hands as they started to hurt. "I. I. Can't. Breathe." The stuff he was saying was pure gold! Why did this jerk off have to be so god damn funny? And what the fuck's a waffle?

"Good! I hope you suffocate you fucking weirdo!" He growled I felt, what I guessed was, a boot to the head. It hurt, but I've suffered worse from District Ten, and had to keep on working because the bastard Greenlaw family. Well, I guess it would be more of a bitch family, but still.

I calmed down from laughing at his funny words before he kicked me again.

"Your funny. Not fuck off you fat lipped black assed ape!" I shouted as I delivered a powerful kick between his legs before he cried out in pain before falling to the ground clutching his injured area.

"We're both the same colour you ass gravy sucker!" He shouted in a slightly higher voice.

"The fuck Timber!" A male voice shouted above us. "I thought I told you not to get into any more fights!"

Oh, that's right, his guy fought with that other girl, Vida something and other yesterday before he got kicked out along with that girl.

"She started it!" Timber told him.

"You ran into me fuck face!" I told Timber.

"You two need to learn to say excuse me. Fucking morons." The peacekeeper growled.

"Excuse me fucking morons." I replied. "There, I learned what to say next time. Happy?"

"The things I put up with." The peacekeeper said before I felt a pair of hands grab my wrists before I saw a peacekeeper start to drag Timber away from me. "God damn kids.'

"You haven't heard the last of Timber Carther!" The boy shouted at me. I had a feeling he was telling the truth. "This fight an't over! You hear me! I'll get my revenge!"

"What fucking ever!" I shouted to him. I sure hoped that he didn't come and attack me in revenge, I didn't want to hurt him too much over a stupid fight like this, and I might of taken in a little too far with my last attack on him.

I felt myself start to get dragged by the pair of hands when a small framed, blond haired, green eyed girl started to walk beside me as I got closer to the exit. She had a bright smile on her face and her waist length hair had been cut to just over shoulder length.

"Hi there sexy," She said to me in the kind of voice the whores back home used when they were talking to people and promised a good time to them. She was pretty enough to be one.

Wait? Why the hell was she talking to me like that? After a fight? Now of all times? "I couldn't help but notice that your a lost soul who looks like he can handle himself in a fight. I like people like you." She said as she gently placed her right index finger on the side of my face before tracing it my face and neck. The fuck was she doing? "You should come and join me, I'll make it worth your while."

"I see what's going on here!" I shouted to her. "You, Jenriko of District One is offering sex for protection. Well I'm all up for it hoebag." Her smile continued to shine as she extended a hand.

"So we have a deal?" She asked.

"Fuck yeah we have a deal sugar tits." I told her as I shook her hand before the peacekeeper dragged me threw me out of the training center, forcing me to let go of her hand.

I landed hard on the elevator floor before the door closed on me.

Now that I looked back on what I had done, all I could think of was, "Wait...What...Huh? What the fuck just happened?" Sure I could see through her whore like voice, but why did I agree to her proposal so easily?

**District Two's Jeremiah Sentris's POV**

"Did it work?" I asked as Jenriko returned to us, all smiles as usual.

"Of course it worked," Jenriko answered proudly. "No guy can resist the potential reward of sex."

"Most guys are doltish and obtuse." Dylan explained to us, using words that I don't think half the people in this group understand. I pretended to ignore him because it would of ruined the happy mood of the group.

"Yeah, be seductive and they turn into drooling apes." I said, the proof was from the District Ten boy who probably hasn't gotten laid in his life due to his ugly features. Because of that, it was funny to watch Jen seduce him and trace her finger down his face and neck while whispering sweet nothings to him. An easy target, that's what he was.

"Oh hey, look at me I'm the average teenage guy." Jenriko said with a deep, mocking like voice. "I think with my dick, not my brain." She made gestures to make her impersonations even funnier.

"It's a good thing I not the average kind of guy," I said, looking at Dylan and thinking of myself. "I can actually think of other things rather then sex when a girl is in front of me."

"And you think I can't?" Dylan asked.

"I don't know, can you?" I asked him jokingly.

"Dexterously." Dylan answered, using one of those words that nobody understood. I hated him using words like that in situations like this, it almost killed the conversations, and I liked this kinds of conversations.

"Your both guys," Jenriko said to us with a not so serious voice, but at the same kind, a little serious. "So you can't completely ignore a sexy girl talking dirty to you."

"And you should be talking," Dylan said calmly, but dryly and sarcastically. "It's not like you could ignore a guy who wants to have his way with you."

"As long as he's handsome." Jenriko said as she gave a little chuckle.

"Slut." Dylan said dryly, which made me laugh a little. Oh man, this conversation was going places, and it was awesome. Dad told me not to get involved with girls in anyway unless I was going to use them for my own personal gain, but I wasn't going to listen to him, because I wasn't going to throw away my two female allies like pieces of trash. Sure they'd have to end up dead sooner or later, but they were actually pretty good. I liked all of us being together.

"Will all of you shut the fuck up and actually focus!" Victory's voice shouted angrily at us.

Well, those times where Victory didn't seem to like us to have fun. "Can the only thing you three talk about is sex? Focus on the main objective here and see what other useful tributes we can round up to join our alliance." Well, she just killed our fun as quickly as a career beheading another tribute. Damn Victory, can't we just have a little fun and not be so serious? Even Dylan was actually coming out and being humorous.

"Fine." Jenriko said while rolling her eyes slowly and largely, showing heavy annoyance and sarcasm at the same time, which I thought was pretty funny despite my district partner getting angry at us. I mean, couldn't we have a little fun? "See that guy over there?" She asked, pointing towards someone in front of her. We all turned around to see that she was pointing at a tall, strong looking guy with light brown hair. Trim Fetching from District Nine.

"Yeah." We all answered, wondering if she really wanted that guy to join us. He was all right with a spear, but he was annoying because he wanted everyone to accept him. And when he wasn't accepted, he was pissed off and demanded to know why you didn't like him. He tried to hard to be liked.

"He really needs to get laid." Jenriko laughed.

At that moment, Dylan and I started to laugh as well, more I then Dylan, but I could hear him laughing lightly.

But the situations soon back fired when I saw Victory give a sharp back kick to Jenriko's face.

**District Four's Dylan Drake's POV**

Seeing Victory kick Jenriko in the face seemed to eradicate the mood even more then it did last time. The mood seemed to just disappear as Jenriko staggered back several feet.

"What was that for?" She asked as she held her face with a solitary hand.

"The hell do you think it was for?" Victor retorted. "Can none of you not think of sex? I swear, I don't think any of you are taking this seriously."

I sure as hell was taking it seriously. I was always taking it seriously. It's just that I got involved with the conversation and it ended up like this.

"We are taking it seriously." I told Victory, who had taken the somewhat officious role as being our leader.

"Shut up four eyes," She said quickly without even looking at me. She never looked at me, and I knew why. I don't think the other careers made the connection, but her brother, Vladimir, died in the same year that my sister won. It mustn't of been hard for her to make the connection. Creek Drake. Dylan Drake.

I was solicitous that she'd take her anger of my sister onto me. I was watching out for her, because right now, she seemed like a little time bomb that might take out everyone in her path.

My sister, acting mentor, told me last night to watch out for her, not that I needed her advice for that, I already knew that. So since I learned her name from the reaping review tape on the train ride, I watched her to find her weaknesses and strengths.

Her weapon of choice was a bow and arrow that she seemed to never miss with. She was also adapted in hand to hand combat and was strong as well. Not as strong as Jeremiah was, but still strong. She also had exquisite looks, which gave her an advantage in terms of sponsors just by looks.

She had the looks of Jenriko. The strength of Jeremiah. And my deadly aim with spears.

But was she smart? She didn't appear to be, all she was was bossy, telling us to scout out tributes to join the careers since Calamity was out of our group and Selene was only slightly better then the mediocre tribute.

Victory was also short tempered and sucked at survival skills. If the career supplies got destroyed, she wasn't going to last very long. "You are so not taking this as serious as I am."

"I am taking it seriously." I told her strongly. "I'm taking it so seriously it's almost inapprehensible."

"There you go saying those words again like you think your so smart and know everything." Victory snarled without looking at me. "I bet you don't even know what your talking about."

"I do know what it means," I told her, insulted that she'd think that I'm so dumb that I'd use words that I didn't discern. "It means-"

"I don't care what it means," She interrupted rudely. "And you Jen, don't even think about attacking me or else."

"Or else what?" Jenriko challenged giving an arrogant smirk. I saw that Victory was about to hit Jen, so I did something that would probably make the career pack hate me and think of me as a coward.

"Hay peacekeepers!" I shouted. "Over here!"

If Jen or Victory or both somehow decided that they'd divorce from the career pack and be our enemy, it would only create more problems for us and me in the future. But this way, hopefully we can avoid something abysmal from happening.

**District Nine's Wren Sylvia Hayes's POV**

When mom had to say goodbye to me, I saw her do something that I had never seen her do before. She came up to me and cried. Never had I seen her cry, and I didn't know how to handle it. After all, I was crying as well, because of all those deaths that happened in the square and how I was going to go away from my family and I didn't know if I was going to come back again.

Up there, I was too shocked at what I did to even think about what was going on, but when I got into the justice building, I just broke down, and I wasn't the only one, not even close.

Mom cried with me and said that she loved me and that she only wanted the best for me, which was so out of character for her it was almost scary.

She shouted and tried to transform us into ladies, like her, so that we could fit in when we had to. She prepared us for any situation, though this was one situation that she hadn't prepared us for, i doubt that she was prepared herself.

She said that I was braver then she could ever be, which was also out of character for the person who always criticized my sister and I. For a moment, I wondered who this women was and what had she done with my mom. But then I remembered the other adults at the square, the ones who had lost kids and those who nearly lost kids as well. Mom was no different then they were.

Hearing mom talk about how she just wanted the best for me just made me break down inside.

My sister, Aspen, came in next, she was basically the same as mom, crying. Brave little Aspen who wasn't scared to speak her mind told me that she was scared of losing me and wondered what life would be like without me. It made me cry even more.

She was always there for me, and I was always there for her. I looked at the simple wooden ring that i had given her as a birthday present a couple years earlier. She said that even though I was going to the Capitol, we wouldn't be completely separated if I had her ring. I just had to look at her ring and know that if I was in need of comfort and know that she was cheering me on.

Finally, dad came in and started talking to me.

He started to tell me that while he knew how I felt, I needed to learn how to get out of my comfort zone and start talking with people. He told me that I'd have a better chance of surviving if I had an ally with me. Also, I'd need to do a private training session, so I couldn't back away from there unless I wanted a bad score. I'd also need to do an interview, both my score and interview could be the difference between some sponsors and no sponsors, and some sponsors could be the difference between life and death.

I also needed to learn how to use a weapon to defend myself. Even just one weapon.

I took his advice, but so far, I hadn't even practiced anything at any training sections. Physically anyway, I listened to what the trainers said to the other tributes and learned from that.

As for getting an ally, I was too scared to ask any of them, and they all passed by me. But then again, I was hiding from them. I tried going up to one of them, the District Seven girl Willow Jacksmith, because she seemed like the kind of person I'd get along with.

She was alone, and seemed to be sticking to the shadows, a lot like I was. But I got too scared halfway through and abandoned talking to her.

And did I really want allies? There had been two fights between two of the three alliances in this room. First was between Timber Carther and Vida Rosalyn Harkle. Then came the career fight. Only one punch had been thrown between Jenriko Florence and Victory Valentine, but it was still a fight.

Looking at those, I didn't think an alliance was a good idea. Did I really want to fight?

**A/N: I have no idea how I remembered my brother once saying inapprehensible while I was writing this chapter, but it seemed to fit the situation for Dylan.**

**Wow, fights in almost every POV, how will anyone ever work together?**

**Seductive talk? I suck at that, lol. Have fun at how lame I am at sexy talk XD**

**Half the Capitol chapters are done.**


	17. Training day 3

**Training day 3**

**District Eight's Malik Broker's POV**

Phoebe was the closest thing that I had to a sister, and when she called me brother inside the justice building, I thought of the tag on the bag of her reaping dress, a name was printed on it. A name that spelt Carmen.

It was one of the only things that I remembered owning that was my own, something that wasn't stolen or looted from same trash can, but something that was really mine, and it was the thing that I protected the most.

I had nothing from my parents, and I didn't know if I had any siblings, but because of that dress, it made me hope that I had someone I could connect to. But as quickly as I formed that thought it was crushed, because there were no Carmen's in the orphanage.

For years I looked through the district to try and find my would be sister, only to never get any place and got left with nothing. I kept hope though that I might find her, because I wanted someone that was family. Phoebe and Anna were good, but they weren't blood related.

Until a few years ago, I was alone, until Anna started to hang around me for some reason. I could never understand why a rich girl like Anna would want to be around the likes of me and Phoebe The only reason I could think of was that her friends just wanted to get a laugh out of the situation. But as long as she provided good company and kept the food coming our way I didn't mind.

Then two years ago, Phoebe came into my life when she ran into me in an alleyway when she was running away from her dad. She looked up at me and her eyes told me that she wanted a protector.

I wasn't going to save her at first, but then I felt something for her, looking at her made me think of Carmen, though I didn't know if she'd be younger then me or not, Phoebe made me think of her.

Seconds later, her dad ran into the ally and demanded that I hand his daughter over to him. I didn't, so he attacked me. He was going to kill me, so I destroyed his skull with a piece of steel.

It wasn't until after that that Phoebe told me that he had been abusing her and that she was glad to finally be free from him.

Nobody figured out that I killed him nor do Phoebe and I talk about it. It was our secret.

But there was a secret that I wanted to solve. Phoebe's reaping dress, the name Carmen, the Capitol kept records on everything, so the Capitol must know who Carmen of District Eight is and where she was. If I could find out something about her that'd be great.

Since I couldn't access Capitol records myself, I taped a piece of paper on the escort's and demanded that she looked into the name Carmen of District Eight and that she either tell me everything she found out, or give me the records so that I could read them myself. Though three days have passed and she still hasn't gotten me anything.

I really wanted to find out if I had a blood sister, and there was only three more days until I'd head off into the arena.

The arena, where I'd have to kill the other tributes.

I looked around the training center and saw all the other kids that I needed to kill.

I heard my district partner, Vida Rosline Hackel or something like that, shout to our escort that she'd never forgive her for killing her only friend and that she'd butcher her after she became victor. Well Vida was wrong about killing our escort, because she wasn't going to leave the arena alive.

Vida had her sob story, and I bet the other tributes had theirs as well, but that didn't matter in the long run, because only one of us could win, and that was going to be me.

**District Ten's Perla Freuff's POV**

I noticed that my hands were shaking again. More violently this time.

Damn it! I needed my fucking drugs! I needed to get something to calm my body and mind down otherwise I was going to go insane!

I craved the stuff I smoked, I craved the high it gave me, I needed it to keep me going. I couldn't concentrate on anything but thinking about how to get another fix, and it was proving to be hard to even get something to huff. There was nothing that gave off enough chemical fumes on my floor to get me high god damn it! What kind of place doesn't have something to huff? Where the tribute's lived in the Capitol, that's where!

I destroyed the light bulbs in the rooms to try and inhale the chemical vapors that were trapped inside of them, but there wasn't enough in those tiny little bulbs. I needed the big long ones that hung over the training center! The ones that were hanging over my fucking head out of my reach!

Fuck! Fuck!

If my so called 'friends' didn't take away my drugs when we were in the justice building, I'd be good right now, but instead, I was losing my mind!

Jillian, Markus and Laura, they were supposed to be my friends, the ones that help you get what you need and try to make your life better. But no, they made my life worse by taking away the narcotics that I needed. Some friends they are! Soony gave me some drugs that I could hide on me so that I could sneak them into the Capitol, but those three bastards stole Soony's gifts and beat me up for them.

They wanted those drugs for themselves! They claimed that they wanted to help me, but all they wanted was to help themselves! And after all our time together, having mutual respect for each other and helping one another when one needed help, they showed their true colours in the end.

Turns out Soony was my only true friend, those other three were frauds. Real friend's don't steal from their friend's in their time of crisis! I saved them from being ripped apart by those hell hounds and that was how they repaid me? I should of killed them in the justice center.

I got desperate yesterday and tried to go out into the Capitol to see if there was some low life dealer that would sell to me, but those bastard peacekeepers wouldn't let me leave the building, no matter what I tried to say.

I wasn't in the mood to get lectured on how I shouldn't leave the building, so I tired to fight my way through, only for other peacekeepers to gang up on me and knock me out before I found myself in my room with my escort on my bedside.

I looked at her and found my solution to my problem, her. She could go out into the Capitol public and find someone to buy from, and it was night time, so it was the perfect time to find some dealers.

I hated talking, but I was desperate, so I told her that I couldn't sleep and that I needed something to calm me down so that I could stop twitching and feel better. She then asked, in that quick talking voice of hers, what I needed, so I told her. She had a look on her face that told me she wasn't comfortable with what I was asking for before she told me that she'd go out and try and find me something.

Feeling pleased with myself, I continued to lie on the bed and waited for her to get the drugs, but when she did return, she told me that there were no dealers out that. She gave me some bullshit excuse that they had all somehow disappeared off the face of the earth.

I didn't believe her for a second and gave her a piece of my mind by jumping out of bed before beating her face in with my own two fists. I didn't stop until that bastard of a district partner came in, picked me up, and literally threw me into the wall.

I wanted to kill him, but then the world turned black and I didn't wake up until morning.

Now I was here, thinking of another way to get the goods I needed. Or at least a substitute.

**District Nine's Trim Fetching's POV**

When it was time to say goodbye to everyone, my mom and my sister, Kelly, came in and started talking to me about how it was foolish of me to volunteer into the games because of what happened to Jackson, I told them that I was doing it so that we could restore our family's honor. Mom and Kelly told me that I was just being foolish and that I should of stayed here, where I could of lived a nice life.

I understood what they were trying to say, after all, they didn't want to lose me, but I needed to set things right in the arena. They couldn't understand it, but it needed to be done.

Then they started talking about how they were going to miss me and how nothing was never going to be the same, that's when I felt myself crying. I knew that I was going to come back, but the way mom and Kelly were speaking made me think that they were being broken inside.

Dad on the other hand told me that men don't cry. He then told me to suck it up and left the justice building. Mom told me that he was sad as well, but I didn't believe her. Dad was the mayor, and he always looked down on me, no matter what I did, nothing was ever good enough for him. Apparently, not even volunteering into the Hunger Games was good enough to him.

Well, what will he say when I win the Hunger Games? He'll be on his hands and knees telling me how wrong he was about me, how he was going to say that I was a better person then he could even think of. All those times that he said I was never good enough for anything, he was going to regret all that.

Trim Fetching the victor, a name that our family could be proud of. Something that Jackson could look down on from the sky and see that his death was avenged.

But so far, nobody was taking me seriously, nobody seemed to like me and wouldn't talk to me or anything. They all tended to stay away from me. I couldn't understand why they didn't give me a chance.

I showed that I was good with a spear, that I was strong both physically and mentally, but nobody still wanted me around them. They were acting like dad, they didn't want me around them.

I looked around and feared that nobody liked me. I didn't want everyone to hate me, I wanted to be accepted. Couldn't they just see that?

I decided to go to the fire starting station when a girl walked up to me, a first that's happened since I came into the Capitol, nobody seemed to want to approach me, so this came as a surprise to me.

"Trim Fetching," The District Two girl known as Victory Valentine said to me with a smile on her face. "How would you," she said while pointing a finger at me playfully. "Like to join the careers?" Was she really offering me this? They were avoiding me for the last two training days, and now they wanted me?

"Are you joking?" I asked, worried that she was joking. All she did was laugh and shake her head.

"No, I'm not. Your strong and good with a spear, your good enough to spark our interest. We'll gladly accept you into our group and offer you just about anything you want."

I looked at her seriously, trying to see if she was joking, to see if she was trying to trick me. But the more I looked at her, the more I saw that she was serious. I looked behind her to see her allies, everyone from the career districts minus the District One male who stayed away from everyone and muttered to himself occasionally. But he was replaced by the District Ten male, Tanner Hart.

Well, if they'd accept that idiot because of his physical strength, then of course they'd accept me for my physical and mental strength at least. And they looked like they wanted me as well, so she couldn't of been joking. "So," she asked. "You in?"

"Fuck yeah I'm in." I told her.

"Welcome to the career pack." Victory told me.

I couldn't help but smile. Dad told me to man up, well now I was in the career pack, how much more badass could I get?

How do you like me now dad?

**District Two's Victory Valentine's POV**

Now there was seven people in the career alliance, but we still had one other person that we'd like to have in our alliance. Though wither he'd accept is harder to work out then Tanner or Trim. Tanner was half convinced half didn't know what had happened when he agreed to join us, but he didn't bring it up again. Trim on the other hand had such a need to be accepted that when I told him that he was accepted by us he jumped on the chance to join us.

The other one was different, he didn't seem desperate or stupid, so he could accept our proposal as easily as refuse it. He wasn't going to be as easy as the other two, but he was a bigger prize then the two of them.

I looked at our next target at the sword training center swinging the weapon around.

He looked almost bored, but the way he was moving around and listening to the instructor told me that he was taking the lesson seriously. It reminded me of how I used to take my lessons seriously, until my brother died. That's when I stopped enjoying the games, that's when I started to hate the Capitol.

Until his death I always thought that training was fun, and it was. Mom's training wasn't fun, but training with my older brother was, because unlike mom, he wasn't pushy and was humorous.

Then the reapings came and mom told him to go into the games, and he did. I think I knew the reason now, mom must of made the same deal with him then that she did with me now. Vlad wanted to be a peacekeeper like our dad, so he wasn't too big on winning the games, he was just training so that dad could take him in when he turned nineteen. But mom and the Capitol took away his dreams.

I touched the dog tags around my neck and thought of him. Nobody had commented on him, they didn't seem to notice that I shared the same last name with the District Two male tribute that died three years ago. And Dylan didn't seem to notice it either, despite his fancy words and him being smart, he didn't notice that I was the younger sister of a boy that died when his sister won the games. I would of thought that Jeremiah would of known me as Vlad's sister, but he didn't seem to remember him either.

People looked at the dog tags and assumed that they were mine, not even taking a good look at them. If they did, they would of noticed that one of them said Vladimir instead of Victory.

Not even our escort seemed to remember my brother, because the Capitol doesn't care about losers, just the winners. I hated it.

The Capitol, I'll play their game. I'd do what they'd want me to do, look like a Capitol lapdog, like the non-careers call us, or at least what Tanner's district calls us. I'll do what the Capitol tells me and get their support. But while I was playing their game I wasn't playing it for them, I was playing it for myself for my own reasons. The only reason I was here was because of my sister, Valley.

During our goodbye, I told her mom's deal and told her to stop training, because when I was finished with the arena, she'd never have to suffer from mom's training again.

**A/N: I hope you all liked the training days, because its over now.**

**Well, only three more Capitol chapters until the arena.**


End file.
